Thoughtfulness.

Gifts from kind strangers
arrive, mixed in with junkmail.
Make the path sweeter.








(Thanks, Jen, for such a lovely and appropriate book! I hope we get to meet someday.)

Time passes slowly, but joyfully.

Hello! Long time no write.

I've been busy as a bee, visiting friends and family in Austin, working, and babysitting (which involved lots of fooz-ball playing--such difficult work). I'm also currently fighting the good fight against pollen. Right now, pollen is totally winning. I am simply fighting to stay functional at this point.

Here are some thoughts:

Books.
Books about Africa.....

I recently finished both Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Notes From the Hyena's Belly, both of which are rather hair-raising in their own way, and both of which I recommend.

Other books...

Have you ever read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson? I read it a year or so ago, and was deeply moved. It's one of the most beautiful books I've read in a long time. (Apparently, Obama likes it, too. I saw it on his Facebook page.) Somehow, though, I've never moved on to other books by Robinson. I think all the adoption/Africa reading got in the way. So, anyway, the other day I was glad to read this review of Housekeeping by our friend, Melissa Schubert. I feel motivated to read the book now. (Melissa was in my church small group way back when. I remember being a bit stunned by her intelligence. Melissa is an academic now, which is exactly what she should be.)

And, um, pay special attention to the name of the lead character.

Art....

I've got a few plans to make some more little prints. Animals. Trees. Little Ethiopian girls.

I've also ordered the loveliest wool felt and vintage beads and buttons, and am making some of those felt hair clippies you see all over etsy. Really fun to make!

Here are a few, finished and unfinished. Cute, no?

Adoption....

We continue to count down the days til the courts re-open. We have a little file of pictures of the little one, which is opened at least once a day and studied carefully.

Susannah.

***Update: Things are looking up for little Susannah. Please continue to pray, and go to the most recent blog entries for the most recent news.


Please pray for this adoptive family, in China *right now* to bring home their sweet little one, who has an unrepaired cleft palate and heart condition. When they arrived in China, they found Susannah in a filthy hospital, extremely ill. Frankly, she will probably die if they can't get her home to the US soon. Pray for a miracle. I can't imagine.

Happy 9th, baby.

The little one turns nine months old today. We continue to hope and pray that we will be able to bring her home before she turns one. Thinking a lot about her today.

Feeling the love.

It's hard to write about this in a thorough way. Hard to express how profound it's been for us. When I think about this long journey to parenting Michael and I have been on, I begin with the miscarriage I had at eleven weeks, over three years ago. People in our church community came out of the woodwork, bringing meals. Our mothers and grandmothers came over to help around the house as I recovered physically and emotionally. Yes, a few people made dumb, insensitive comments, obviously unintentionally so, but mostly, we got warm gentle love from our friends. Our pastor called us to tell us he loved us. A church elder, a man with grown daughters, told me gently, "You will probably have waves of grief later on that might take you by surprise. Just know it's okay to feel that way." We were so blessed to have friends walk beside us in our sadness. I think, so often, the blessing of community becomes most obvious in our darkest and neediest moments, when we're not so good at pretending like we have it all together.





******************

Now, to adoption. I continue to be genuinely amazed at the love and concern given to us and now, to the Little One, by our real-life community. Out of our real-life community came miraculous provision for our adoption, and I don't use the term "miraculous" lightly or loosely. Our moms and dads, and our brothers and sisters: Scott, Daniel and Heather, Jimmy and Dawn, have prayed for us. Dear friends like Lisa gave us sweet hand-me-downs from little Mat-Mat. All along, my best friend Roxana kept shipping encouraging little packages down from Boston. Hannah brought adorable dresses and an encouraging card. Martha gave us yummy baby skin care products. Melanie gave us an "Owie" doll. Our parents have gifted us with clothing multiple times. People prayed and rejoiced with us over our referral.

(Hannah, Sarah, and Martha celebrate our referral with us.)

But wait, it gets even better and more profound--we have to back up a little in time. In the midst of our adoption process, we have ADDED a community: one passionate about family, passionate about Ethiopia and her children. We have been blessed ten-fold, and we don't even have our sweet one home yet. Lori kept calling to encourage me as the our wait got longer, Laura and Meredith were my biggest cheerleaders online and at the Blog Union, Amy sent me a darling handmade ragdoll and headband in the mail the other day, and on and on and on it goes.

(Amy, Lori, Abe, me, and Courtney at the Blog Union.)

So, I guess I'm writing this to say, thank you. Thank for loving us so well. I hope you receive blessings back one-hundred fold for the ways you've cared for us.

Now, we can't wait to get that little squirt home and REALLY celebrate.

(here's a terrible picture I took this morning of a few of the material gifts the little one has received.)

The latest.

Where we are:

1. We are waiting for the Ethiopian courts to open; they close during the rainy season. Hopefully, they will reopen in early October.

2. Then we will be assigned a court date.

3. On our assigned date, a judge will review our documents. Many don't "make it through" on their first court dates, so we might be assigned a new one. Obviously, we really hope to pass our first time through.

4. After a successful court date, we will be given travel dates by Gladney, and begin to make travel plans. Again, we don't know exactly how quickly we would travel; it seems to vary from case to case.

5. Our hope and prayer is to have our little one home by Christmas. This seems to be a reasonable hope.

6. Please pray that we have the sweetest little early Christmas present of our lives.

7. I close today's post with another post by my dear friend Hannah. Hannah is lovely and stylish. Hannah lives in the 'hood. By herself. Near Melissa and her family.

With Hannah.

A Care Package Headed to Africa.....

....Thanks to my sweet bloggy friend, Meredith. She and Ryan meet their sweet Simon soon! And they have graciously offered to take these little gifts to our little one. We are so thankful!!!! (Don't worry, Meredith, all this stuffs into a big ziploc bag! No, seriously!)