"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.
If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3

Saturday, July 31, 2010

If I never make another batch of cookies again.......


Our cookie sales are done and we sold a whopping;

19 dozen Oatmeal-Raisin
22 dozen snicker doodle
31 dozen M&M Bars
32 dozen peanut butter-chocolate chip
A grand total of : 101 DOZEN COOKIES
This brought us in $618 !! Minus $200 for ingredients=
$418 brought in for our adoption

Friday, July 30, 2010

WE ARE HAVING A CAR WASH TOMORROW FOR OUR ADOPTION!


Wanted to let everyone know that we are having a car wash tomorrow Sat. July 31st to benefit our adoption travel expenses. It will be 9am t0 3pm at Silverton Figaroes parking lot. It is free with donations accepted! Come get your car cleaned! Hope to see you there!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

WE FINALLY GOT OUR REFERRAL CALL FOR OUR BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!


WE ARE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE FINALLY GOT THE CALL FOR OUR BABY GIRL. SHE IS A BEAUTIFUL 5 WEEK OLD BABY WITH HUGE EYES, gorgeous skin AND LOTS OF BLACK (AND CURRENTLY STRAIGHT) HAIR. we can't post her pictures as this is an Ethiopian Government rule-they won't let us until we have her back in the USA. They do this to protect their orphans from any exploitation. We have pictures with us at all times though-so just ask to see them! And even if you don't ask, chances are you will be shown them! :-) Here are her cute and tiny hands though-to share a small piece of her. We have a couple people we know that are going over to Ethiopia now to pick up or see their babies and they are gonna try and get more pictures and video of her-that would be like gold!!!
OK-SO I KNOW EVERYONE IS DYING TO HEAR ABOUT OUR "CALL" (especially those on our AGCI listserve) :-) This will be long-sorry in advance, but I want it to be something she can read someday, so I want to keep the details.
I was at home on Monday morning and had taken 3 of the kids to Vacation Bible School (VBS). Jacob, our oldest, was home getting ready to leave for camp the next day and I am so glad we got the call while he was still home! Logan was playing and the phone rang as I was doing some chores around the house at exactly 11:15 am. I saw that it was AGCI on the caller ID and my heart skipped a beat and it seemed that time stood still for a couple seconds. I answered, knowing that it could be regarding some issues with a date being wrong on our homestudy (they are fixing this), as I had talked to them a few times the previous week about this and although I thought it was resolved, I knew that I wasn't about to let myself get my hopes up. However, I was almost 100% sure that we were #1 on the list and when Julie our caseworker said hello, and asked how I was and if I had some time to talk-I KNEW!! I could feel my adrenalin starting up and my heart beating faster as she said those coveted words, "Well, I have a little girl here that I would like to talk to you about." I don't even know what I said, except, "You do?-OK"! She started talking a little bit and I asked if it would be ok to conference call my husband in. She said yes and dialed him at work. I was listening to her as she introduced herself to Adam and it was weird thinking that I knew his world was about to be rocked-I knew it was coming!
After we were both on and she told us that Kiersten, our original caseworker who had just left Sunday for Ethiopia/Rwanda and was so mad the week before because after going through this with us, SHE wanted to be the one to tell us about our referral-AND THEY KNEW the week before that we would be getting her, but were waiting on a couple more clarifications on her lab tests to be answered before calling us with her referral-so Kiersten missed it! However, it is OK, I love Julie too and she was great!
She began by going over the baby's medical concerns-before telling us anything else, even her age. She said that she had been very sick and they thought it was Sepsis (a really bad infection throughout your blood that can be caused by many different things-Ecoli, Group B Strep, etc). They had treated her for it as well as yeast in her mouth. She was so sick, she didn't want to suck at first, but is doing great now and eating well, the report said. She was malnourished and dehydrated when she came into care. She had been at Hannah's Hope, the orphanage that All God's Children uses, since July 1st (about 3 weeks now) and was doing well, gaining weight and eating great.
After what seemed like tons of info-which I got about 1/2 of what I was probably actually told-even though I tried to write everything down, I finally, half way through the conversation asked her what her Birthday was.
At this point, she said that her BD is June 11th. This is the point that I started to break down as my breath caught in my throat-because this is Adam and my wedding anniversary. All I kept thinking during this time was two things-a song, "Swept Away" by Geoff Moore -here is the link to the song http://tinyurl.com/35vu3nj It just kept playing through my head which is weird cause I have only heard it a couple times (I found out today that it is a song he wrote for his adopted child and I love the song now).
The other thing that kept resonating over and over was "God is SO good!" I just kept thinking how good He truly is. You see, our baby girl is only 5-1/2 weeks old. Now as a side note, years ago when we first looked into adoption, we really didn't want to do international because we thought that most of the babies that you get home were older-toddlers, older kids, etc....which there is nothing wrong with. We just really wanted the baby stage. But when we looked into it this time and saw that Ethiopia allows infants that are pretty young, we decided to go for it since we love the baby stage and didn't want to miss a lot of it. So, I kept praying some that we could get a young infant.
Well, at the same time, I told everyone that I was pretty sure we would get an older baby, as I just couldn't get my hopes up that God would give us a newborn. So, I just told myself that it would probably be older and I prayed that above all, God would give us the child that was meant for our family. So, when I heard 5 weeks and born on our anniversary, I just figured this was a small gift from God and confirmation that this was it-you don't need to worry!
I tried to compose myself to hear what else she had to say and she went over a couple other things-but I can't really tell you what. :-) A lot was going through my mind like all that this, almost year and a half, has brought us to get to this point-the fundraising, paperwork, money, everything, came down to this-meeting our baby!
I then asked how she was brought in. This is where it got really hard. She said that she was abandoned at about 6 days old and left at a church under their fence (gate). (In Ethiopia most residences are surrounded by large and tall fences. So, someone slid her underneath). This is the point that I lost all control and started sobbing. I couldn't breathe. I felt time stop once again and I tried to take it all in. I hadn't even seen her picture yet and Adam was still at work listening and trying to leave to drive home. I know he heard me loose it over the phone and tried to answer what she was asking.
It just hit me that as a mom with a mother's heart, how can you leave your baby, and yet we are SO thankful that she left her there and not out in a field where the animals could get her, which happens to so many babies that are abandoned. We don't even know if the mom is still alive, with how sick the baby was, chances are the mom was fairly sick too. If the mom had died-which is really common in childbirth, a family member or another person could have brought her there too. I can handle that easier than thinking about it as a mom and the mom leaving her-that hurts my heart.
I take peace in what another adoptive family shared with me-and that is, "This is God's plan for this baby-the plan was for her to be in your family, so in order for that to happen, someone had to abandon her." I know this is true and God is in control, but it still is such a mixture of emotions to try and decipher. We are elated one second, but then as I think about how someone had to bring her there, and walk away, it kills us. I want to know how she was found, what she was wearing, how long she was there-did she cry and I am sure she was hungry given her size....etc...but these are things that this side of heaven we will never know!
Jacob called three of our good friends that live within 2 minutes of us to try and find someone to pick up the other kids from VBS. It kind of ended up being good as these 3 friends were such rocks to us during this entire journey and really supported us-they all ended up getting to our house within about 2-5 minutes after Jacob called them to see what the emergency was :-) while I was still on the phone with AGCI. They took pictures and video for us, which was great, AND picked up our kids.
So, by the time Adam got home, and started getting the laptop set up, the kids were all there and we were ready to see our baby! I could hardly breathe as I waited for the pictures to pop up. I can't even describe what it was like to know that you were about to see your baby, the one God hand picked for your family, who is across the world but will soon be in your family. I kept thinking about all we had done to get to this point and I just couldn't believe that we were FINALLY here! It was so surreal-like some sort of weird out of body experience! It seemed that time stood still. It just seemed forever while Adam was downloading the picture. Looking back at it though, before I even knew Adam had hit open, there she was-that is the moment when all my fears, worries, work and this whole roller coaster came to a sudden halt as we looked at the most beautiful, tiny and perfect little face!
I then was SO overcome with emotion, that I couldn't catch my breath, I was crying so hard that I couldn't talk, breath, and as dumb as it might sound, I felt as if I was going to fall to my knees because I was so overcome! I leaned on Cassidy who was in front of me instead. All that kept going through my mind once again was, "GOD IS SO GOOD!" He certainly is!! It is just a feeling that is so hard to pinpoint how to express it. I was in awe when all of my kids were born, but also exhausted and although I cried a little at times, there was never anything like this-the emotional build up was amazing and the enormous gratefulness to God that He would give us this tiny, perfect baby- ah, I just don't have the right words! I felt something similar after delivering our twins prematurely and being whisked by them in the NICU and after not getting to see them all day, being wheeled down in a wheelchair to see them for the first time-funny thing is, they were the exact sizes that Abby is-so we can picture how tiny she actually is.
Anyways, I couldn't stop staring at her picture and the kids though she was so cute and since they sent us 4 pictures of her, we kept flipping back and forth just starring! It was true and utter JOY and thanksgiving!
Abby has quite a story....after she was found abandoned at about 6 days old at the church-(they give her a birth date as they will have NO way to know the exact date-maybe she still had her umbilical cord, etc...we don't and won't know). We are also not sure if a person from the church found her, or the police, but regardless, it was the police that brought her to Bethzetha-the government run orphanage. She was VERY sick with the sepsis so they started her on antibiotics as well as something to cure the yeast infection that was in her mouth. She stayed here for about 2-1/2 weeks of her life when she was then placed at Hannah's Hope Orphanage on July 1st.
When she got to Hannah's hope, she only weighed 4.7lbs! She was so tiny, not to mention what her weight would have been arriving at Bethzetha or even at birth! In the next 2 1/2 weeks she flourished and as of this weeks update, was already 6lbs 4 oz! That is an amazing testimony to the care she is getting at Hannah's Hope! She is obviously a fighter and God was watching over her.
She came with the name "Seble" which they think that the police gave her-it is pronounced "Seb-lah". It means Harvest-which we think is great.
We will be naming her: Abigail (changed it later) Seble Alaine Stutzman

We printed all of our paperwork out that came with the e-mail referral and started right in. We immediately contacted and submitted all the paperwork to the International Pediatrician. We didn't want to waste anytime. We then drove up to All Gods Children to pick-up our Referral Packet rather than waste 1-2 days in having them mail it. We wanted to get started! We then had to stop at Costco to pick-up our order of pictures - we didn't waste anytime in this area either. :-)
Once we got home, we had family and friends over to show them her picture and ended up having a BBQ. It ended up being a GREAT day!! Unfortunately, I had to work the next day and so the next evening after work, we had to finish our first packet of questions before our phone call on Wednesday with AGCI. Wednesday, we got a glowing report from the International Pediatrician and notarized our paperwork. Thursday, I drove up again to deliver our acceptance of the referral to AGCI only to realize there was one more page we needed notarized. Back home to meet Adam and then back up to AGCI. We had all our paperwork in and out of our hands Thursday evening.
We are so thrilled with her progress and are now awaiting our court dates.....so what's next people keep asking-here is what we know:
Our file is being sent to Ethiopia to accept her referral and get our court dates. In about 2-3 weeks they should call us with our court dates. Now the courts are closing the 2nd week in Aug. until end of September because it is their rainy season and roads flood bad. We do know that we won't get a court date before that as they said this week that they are scheduling no more. So, we are hoping and praying that we will get our court date in October right after courts open.
We know that there are some being given out Oct 6th (birth family court),and Oct. 18th-(adoptive family court)-we are so hoping to get in on these-but we need you to pray for this as it is unlikely-but this is when I hope our first travel happens. We need 2 court dates (one for birth family and one for us) There are only 2 a month, so if we don't get in on these, it will be November before we travel the FIRST time-so she should be about 4-5 months old when we meet her for the first time.
She will still have to have a "birth-family" court appointment even though she was abandoned. Someone will come from either the police dept. or the church and represent her and say, "YES, she was abandoned." As in any of the 1st 2 court dates, there is a 50/50% of passing the first time-so this is another prayer request-we NEED to pass both the first time if there is any chance of getting her home by Christmas-which is our goal!
After we both pass those 2 court dates, it will be 6-8 weeks until they will give us our embassy date (during this time, they are getting her a visa and passport), and then we go back to pick her up-so this is close-we SO want her home by Christmas! So, she should be about 6-7 months old when we pick her up.
People have been asking if it is harder now that we know who she is and have a picture of her or if it was harder to not know. I have to say that for those of you in this process, at least for us, it is way easier to have a face to this whole thing then it is to wonder who our daughter is. I would rather be on this side, than still not knowing, even though we have to wait through court closure-I would rather know. But it WILL be a long wait all the same-we want her home!
Please pray for us for the THREE following things:
1.Seble's health-she needs to eat well and keep gaining and stay healthy-she will be more prone to infection with her background and size.
2.Her birth mom and birth family-can't even imagine the pain they are going through-and we want them to find Jesus most of all!
3. That we will get those 2 October court dates and get her home by Christmas!
We love you all and are thrilled that you are on this road with us-thanks for praying and rejoicing in our news! Adam and Amber
Here is our video of our call pictures-enjoy! (Go to bottom of our blog and turn off our blog music before starting video)

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Sunday, July 18, 2010

ANTICIPATION. . . . .

anticipation [ænˌtɪsɪˈpeɪʃən]
n
1. the act of anticipating; expectation, premonition, or foresight


This is the word that fills our minds every -or at least every weekday of the week (when AGCI is open) as we wonder on each and every day, WILL OUR PHONE RING TODAY WITH THE WONDERFUL NEWS OF OUR BABY GIRL?
When the phone does ring-we all jump slightly until we know who it is. How long will this go on we all wonder? The weekends are hard because we know that our agency doesn't make referral calls on sat or sun. But by Monday, hope is renewed that this might be the day or at least the week. It could be any day that we get THAT phone call, but then again, we had friends that sat at #1 on the baby girls list for 2 months before their "call" finally came.
Only one knows and since it is in His hands, we have to try and trust that it is all well. Here are some verses that I am trying to focus on as we wait.

It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. (Deuteronomy 31:8)

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved. (Psalm 127:1-2)

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10a

It is hard to believe that just like in labor, we are waiting to see our babies face and yet, this labor seems to have gone on long enough! I feel like I am 9 months pregnant and am just done-that feeling of you can't do this another day-is here! Essentially, it has been 9 months of pregnancy because 9 months ago, we got on the waiting list at #44. But, we did have months of preparation before even getting on that wait list, but still-this pregnancy is OVERDUE! :-)
I can't help but think about her each and everyday-how old will she be and what will she look like are 2 of my most pressing questions.
I am also so anxious to hear her story-where did she come from, what was her family situation, etc.. As I think about this, I know that it will be hard emotionally dealing with the circumstances around her being taken to the orphanage and delivered then to Hannah's Hope (AGCI orphanage in Addis). Someone will have to give her up in order for us to get a new daughter-that is hard, very hard to think about. I try and put myself in that situation-where I can't care for one of my children and have NO other resources-NO family that could help because they are in the same situation we are, NO friends that are in a position any better than me to help, NO government assistance like there is here, NOTHING- and it is hard because my American mind just can't go there-my mind stops short-we can't comprehend it, it is too tragic. These are things I think about and how in this life, we will never understand why this happens and how it is that a parent has to leave her child at an orphanage, but I hope that even if just for a moment each day when they think of their child after we bring her home, they know she is getting love, food, a home and Jesus and this gives them some peace about their horrendous decision.
Please continue to pray for Abby and for us as we continue to wait-love you all-Amber

Winner to our t-shirt contest......







We drew our winner for the t-shirt contest we had-the winner is:




they are also an adoptive family and we are so glad to be able to share our ADOPT ETHIOPIA t-shirt with them!
Congratulations HEART 2 HOME FAMILY!!! ENJOY YOUR SHIRT!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

COOKIE MONSTER SALE!!!! GET YOUR YUMMY COOKIES NOW!






















OK GUYS-SO WITH A HOPEFULLY COMING REFERRAL, WE HAVE DECIDED TO ONLY SELL COOKIES THROUGHOUT THIS MONTH AND END ON AUG. 1ST....SO THAT GIVES YOU ALL A LITTLE OVER 2 WEEKS TO STILL GET SOME MADE FROM SCRATCH HOMEMADE COOKIES!!! THEY HAVE BEEN SELLING GREAT-SO GET YOUR BATCH TODAY!!
HERE ARE THE DETAILS:
The Stutzman Family is in the process of adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia, they are currently number 5 on the waitlist to receive the referral of her. They have decided to bake delicious cookies to raise funds for the TWO trips they will need to make to Ethiopia to bring their daughter home.Their homemade cookies are sold in these yummy varieties:Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip, M&M Cookie Bars, Oatmeal-Raisin, and Snickerdoodle!Only $4.00 a dozen!They will be freshly baked with your order!Order yours today!!!Baking & Selling Cookies the full month of July -ending Aug. 1stDon't forget cookies make great gifts!Contact Amber to place your order at:503-873-6934ore-mail: awitha@verizon.netThanks for the support to bring babyAbigail home to her forever family!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Our Journey SO far-watch and see what we have done-

I guys-I did a slide show of our road so far of this adoption -it kind of shows a view into what we have done along the way-hope you like it-and thanks for going along with us for each step.
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Sunday, July 11, 2010

Here is another great family-I enjoy reading their blog! Her message is powerful!

I love reading her blog and the things she says are so challenging-I had to share this one-as it really made me stop and think! There's just got to be more we can all do-if we just do one thing-and everyone one would do one thing we would reach so many lives! She wrote so eloquently how we often feel as we go through this adoption.

This is from Rachel at Love with Abandon Blog:
http://walseradoptionadventures.blogspot.com/
It has been three months since Nathan, Hannah, and I returned from Africa. In many ways it seems like we were there only yesterday. In others, it seems like an eternity ago.
I liken my first taste of Africa and my processing of it these last few months to someone who is going through the five stages of grief. I honestly think while I was there, I was in a state of shock. Being slightly numb is about the only way I could keep from weeping at every moment. I was carried along by the rhythm and flow of life in Ethiopia—the sights, and sounds, and smells. But I didn’t know how to feel. I was overwhelmed by the need and my lack of ability to do anything about it. And I certainly didn’t know how to reconcile everything I was seeing with my life back in America.
Which led me to anger. At injustice. At rich, spoiled Americans. At myself. Some justified anger, sure, but mostly my anger was misdirected. I wanted someone to blame. Surely someone was responsible for all this death and sickness and disparity, and so it must be all those people who don’t know, who don’t care, who don’t do anything. If they would just listen. If they would just care. I was ready to point my finger at anyone and everyone.
And, of course, at myself. Because Africa, like a magnifying mirror, reveals more of yourself than you really want to see. Things you hide well in a land of prosperity--like selfishness, laziness, greed, arrogance-- get exposed in a land of want. When you see a woman who has nothing use her meager supply of water and injera to serve you tea-- you can’t help but think of how often you’ve opened your overflowing pantry and sighed that there’s just nothing to fix for dinner. When you meet a man who walks the 3 miles back and forth to work, works 12 hour days, 7 days a week, all for about $2 a day, and he counts himself as blessed—you can’t help but think of how often you’ve complained you needed “me time” after a day “stuck” in your comfy house homeschooling your well-fed kids and folding enough laundry to clothe an army. When you give a child a piece of gum, and you look back to see them sharing it with 6 other children around them--you can’t help but think of overflowing Easter baskets and Christmas stockings stuffed full of goodies. And you feel fat. Regardless how much you weigh, you just feel like a soft, flabby glutton.
And so I entered the stage of bargaining. OK, God, I can still live in my house as long as I speak up for orphans and bring one home to live in it. I can still have 25 pairs of shoes as long as a couple of them are TOMS. I can still spend hours online doing nothing productive, as long as I occasionally post something thought provoking on facebook. I can still own way more than I need, as long as I donate some of the stuff I don’t really want anymore to Goodwill.
But that leads to depression. Because you can never really reconcile owning anything with having given enough. I think of the story where the man came to Jesus and said, ok, I’m ready to follow you, and Jesus said, only one more thing: go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. The man walked away sad. He could not do it. His heart was not willing. While I certainly believe it’s ok to own things, I can never again rest in a place of, ok, I’ve given enough, I’m good now. It will never be enough. And that can be deeply unsatisfying for someone who wants a simple black & white way to deal with my abundance. It just isn’t simple, people.
And I am finally accepting that. There is no easy answer. Really, I’m finding we here in America have a lot more in common with my new friends in Ethiopia than I originally thought. Our countries, yes, different indeed. But we are all people, created in God’s image, and in desperate need of the gospel. And redemption. What Africa wears on the outside, laid bare for all to see, we hide underneath layers in America. They wear physical disease, hunger, poverty, and need. Here, our layers of “stuff” hide emptiness, brokenness, despair, and a hunger that is never satisfied deep within our hearts. Their need is easier to identify, but ours is still there. Underneath it all are human beings with gaping wounds and fatal bleeding. We need a remedy. We need to be rescued.
And with my acceptance comes hope. I believe in a Remedy. I believe in a Rescuer. I serve a King who loves Africans and Americans. I believe He will use me, if I will daily seek to obey His leading in my life. I will not prescribe to you what you need to do, and what that will look like for you. I will not pretend there is an easy solution or that one need in one country is any greater than another need in another country. But for me, I cannot forget what I have seen, and I am now responsible for it. Under the veil of earthly things is a spiritual reality, one we sense when we close our eyes and stand still long enough to feel. We were meant to live for so much more than the American dream.
And so I will not doze off in the sleepy shire, I will engage in the battle. I want blisters on my hands and fatigue deep in my bones and scars on my heart from all I’ve seen and experienced---because too much is at stake. Lives are at stake. Physical and spiritual. I don’t want to cling tightly to anything, save Jesus. I want to spend myself—my life, my time, my resources—with reckless abandon. So that one day, when I stand before Him, I have nothing left. Nothing wasted. Nothing squandered.
I used to be anti-short-term mission trips. I just didn’t see the need to spend thousands of dollars to go somewhere for a few days where you would barely scratch the surface of the need but potentially leave with some sort of self-righteous satisfaction that you at least “did something”, returning to your life of complacency the other 350 days of the year. It seemed to me a bad use of resources that could be better used in the hands of someone who worked there long term as well as a hindrance to seeing the daily mission we are called to here.
But I have changed my mind. Go. Let the two worlds that are America and Africa collide in front of you. Spend the money, because in God’s economy, it’s a drop in the bucket. Like the woman who poured the perfume on the feet of Jesus, offer what seems excessive. When I asked an Ethiopian pastor who ran a local orphanage what I should tell my friends back at home, he said, "Tell them to come. Come and see. It means so much that you would get on a plane, leave your families behind, and come be with us and spend time with us.”
Why would that surprise us? After all, we were created for community. It is the greatest gift we can give as we seek to share Jesus.
So go and see. Serve. Share. But don’t wait to engage in the battle until your feet hit African soil. Start today. Start here. Because too much is at stake.
Join me in this conflicted state, where my sin and my obedience wrestle daily. Choose to live with eyes open. Stop spectating. Suit up, and get on the field, where you strive for the goal but often meet resistance and sometimes fail. It is not funner. It's harder. At times it feels like a burden. But it is what is true. What is real. And it is worth it, because it is where Jesus resides.
**I am blown away by the response I have gotten from this post. It means so much to know I am not alone in this process and this journey! As many of you have asked, YES!, feel free to share this post with others. All I ask is that if you do so, please be so kind as to link back to my blog, preferably, instead of copying the post itself. And please leave me a comment or email me and let me know--I'd love to meet you and visit your blog as well! Thank you again, and may God use all of it for HIS glory!
Posted by Rachel at
12:44 PM
Saturday, April 24, 2010

I love this video!!! This is the family I talked about yesterday-enjoy

WE ARE SO CLOSE!!!!



SO.......there were a few referrals this week-and this puts the Stutzman family at either number ONE or worst case number TWO on the wait list for our baby girl-which means, we could get the call THIS week, or up to two months from now (we have friends that sat at the number 1 spot for 2 months) but we are hoping it is sooner rather than later.


The Ethiopian courts should be closing the 2nd week in August. Many people keep asking me why the courts close in Ethiopia. It is because it is the country's "rainy season time" and it rains so hard that the roads literally become rivers and impassible. It isn't like here-they don't have the infrastructure to deal with the flooding. So, many of the government offices close, and the main one that will close every year during this time is MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs). This is the office in the Ethiopian government ministry in charge of women and children’s affairs. They are the ones that look over everything and write up their ruling to be submitted to court. They realize that the birthfamily would have an almost impossible time traveling to the city so unless our birthfamily makes it BEFORE they close around the 2nd week of August, we will be waiting for that part of court until they reopen mid-October.
However, this may not mean that WE can't travel for the first trip and have OUR court apt.... There is a small chance that the birthfamily could squeek through and get their court apt. before their courts close-People are saying that they may still let the adoptive families travel during closure to at least pass there part. We just don't know....like everything else, this is a day by day adventure into the unknown.
So here is what the timeframe is at this point:
**JULY-hopefully sometime get our referral of our baby girl and find out WHO she is/age, etc.
**4-8 weeks later, fly over and pass our court
during this time-if they can get a court apt. before courts close, birthfamily will go to court.
*If neigher us nor the birthfamily can go to court, we will both be sitting here waiting and doing nothing until mid to late Oct. when we can both get court dates and we won't fly until then-but this is to be determined.
**4-8 weeks after both us and the birthfamily passes court, fly over and p/u our baby girl and come home!! During this 4-8 weeks she will be getting her passport and Visa and the US Embassy will make an apt. for us to go to with her in Ethiopia. Not sure why this takes 6-8 weeks-but it does. Ethiopains are on their own timeframe-they are not rushing around like crazy people like us Americans are. Life is at a slower pace, so it takes time.
Our main goal now is just to have her home by Christmas!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

I am blessed by this family and their wonderful blog posts!





This is a fellow AGCI family that just got home with their adorable baby boy-he is so precious and I have been loving reading their blog and the sweet postings of a mom who lays her heart out there in order to share with others what they have experienced.... please read and consider.....
http://www.babeofmyheart.com/still-processing-especially-bethzatha/

They also are part of a ministry in Zambia called WIPHAN (WI= widows +PHAN= orphan)....if your looking for an orphanage ministry to sponser, this would be a great one!

Here is the link to WIPHAN and some info. about how it got started:

http://www.wiphan.org/our-story/what-we-do

Friday, July 9, 2010

Don't forget to sign up for our t-shirt giveaway!!











We are less than ONE week away from our t-shirt giveaway contest-Enter NOW as there are not that many people that have entered and your chance is GOOD!!

As many of you know, we have been selling t-shrits that we designed as a fundraiser for our adoption. We are currently number 5 on the wait list for a baby girl referral and still are trying to raise money to come up with the cost of the now 2nd required trip to Ethiopia.To have some fun in the process and to get the word out about our t-shirts, we are going to be having a give away! You have until July 16th-Friday 5pm when we will draw a name from all of the entries can win one of these t-shirts-(winner get to choose the size) and we have men's, women's and children/toddler sizes!If you like the shirts and would like to buy them-they are only $12 each plus $3 for shipping!Here’s how you can enter the giveaway (one entry for each):**Leave a comment here to let us know you want an entry and HOW MANY of the things below that you do-so that we know how many entries to give! Without this-we can't enter you! :-) One Entry For each:You can get up to 5 entries!!*Tweet this giveaway (leave us a link here so we can count your entry)*Add a link on your Facebook page about the giveaway (and let us know you’ve done so)*Post about the giveaway on your blog (leave us a link)*Become a Follower of our Blog and if you are already that counts too!* BUY A T-SHIRT!!!(If you already have, post a photo of you wearing it on your blog!)Please join us in trying to tell people about our shirts and get some more t-shirt sales for these last stages of our adoption!!! Spread the word!!! Feel free to link others to this blog entry.Thanks so much!!!the Stutzman Family

Friday, July 2, 2010

This is an amazing family


I have been blessed to read this families blog and what they are doing to help orphans. This link to their blog is an amazing picture of their baby daughter at referral and now-the before and after is stunning!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Getting Closer and Closer to the Top! July Numbers...


Well, we actually made it into the top 5 for our July number. It is kind of ironic because we went from 11-when Jake was 11 and held the sign for that month, to the twins who were 8 for the next month and they held the picture sign, then Noah who was still 6 the next month when that is the number we got for June and here we are at July and can you guess who gets to hold it now-Logan who is 5! So we have went through all our kids, so now don't you think it is time for that referral to come before August!? Keep praying HARD!

BUY SOME COOKIES FROM US-HELP US TRAVEL!


The Stutzman Family is in the process of adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia, they are currently number 5 on the waitlist to receive the referral of her. They have decided to bake delicious cookies to raise funds for the TWO trips they will need to make to Ethiopia to bring their daughter home.
Their homemade cookies are sold in these yummy varieties:
Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip, M&M Cookie Bars, Oatmeal-Raisin, and Snickerdoodle!

Only $4.00 a dozen!
They will be freshly baked with your order!
Order yours today!!!

Baking & Selling Cookies the full month of
July -ending Aug. 1st
Don't forget cookies make great gifts!

Contact Amberto place your order at:
503-873-6934
or
e-mail: awitha@verizon.net
Thanks for the support to bring baby
Abigail home to her forever family!

Our Airport Homecoming for our 2nd Adoption~

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Our Journey up to our Referral

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Seble's Referral Video

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"Although it may not always be obvious to us, there seems to be one distinct moment when God begins a new story in each of our lives. He writes words on our hearts that long to be spoken and strain to be lived out. Then with His own great hand, He begins to write the script. Experience by experience through seemingly ordinary days, He supernaturally orders our lives. Only when we look back and reflect on what appeared to have been the ordinary events of life does it become clear what a miracle the Lord has performed." Jan Beazely

Amazing Adoption Story!

LUCY LANE-AGCI-ADOPTION VIDEO! This inspired us to follow our dream!

WHY WOULDN'T I....WHY WOULDN'T YOU?

What Adoption is About! What a Testimony! Lundy's Adoption

We Love this family and this video is inspiring!

HANNAH'S HOPE ETHIOPIA

FATHER, BREAK OUR HEARTS FOR WHAT BREAKS YOURS~

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