Focus on the Family

I was listening to a Focus on the Family message today about marriage and a 'commercial' that came on totally made me cry - imagine that. :) Anyway, it was about a man who was reading God's Word with his 4 year old son one evening and he read James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." His son was inquiring what an orphan was and just was amazed that there were actually kids in this world with out a mommy or a daddy. He began asking his dad 'why?' and explaining to his dad that they wouldn't be orphans any longer if they had a mom and dad to love them. From that night forward, the boy would set up little beds around their house at night with his blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals for the orphans that he figured they could make room for. One night, his dad went in to his room after he thought his son had been asleep for a while and, there, on his bedroom floor, he had created 3 'beds' for orphans. One of the beds had his very favorite stuffed animal on it. The boy told his dad that he figured they could fit three orphans in his room alone and how excited he was that these kids would be orphans no longer since they would now have a mommy and daddy. How precious. I can't wait to set up a little bed for our orphan that will no longer be an orphan with me as his or her mommy and the best dad in the world as his daddy!!!

4K

Tomorrow morning, I get to take little Drew in for his 4K pictures. I can't believe the little guy is going to be in 4K this year. Oh and what a boy he has become! I just can't explain his sweet heart...
And then - then there is Carissa. :) Just kidding (kind of). Carissa is proving to give us a run for our money every single day. She has picked up some lovely habits - throwing sippy cups on the floor, food on the floor, running out in to the street, yelling mommy over and over and over and over until she finally gets a response... But she sure is sweet too. She just doesn't stop going and going and going. :) She's started combining words now - pointing out "daddy's eyes" "D's foot" "mommy's butt" - yep, "mommy's butt" is a frequently discussed topic by my little girl! :) And she knows pretty much every Sugarland song by heart now.
The kids are getting so big! Too big! Can't wait to add another crazy kid to this mix-up - I mean mix!! :)

August Update

Hello Family & Friends,                                                                                                                       8/3/11

Just writing to give you a quick update on our adoption. . .

On August 6^th, we have officially been on the waitlist for 3 months. Those three months have been busy! Since we applied to the agency in the beginning of November, things have changed drastically for Ethiopia. Due to lots and lots of changes being made, the wait time for a referral has gotten much, much longer. Our agency, according to a message board I am on, has not even given out a referral since the end of May. I’m not certain as to why this is, but I do know that it looks like it will be a long wait for us. But, you never know. Things could also change for the better just as quickly as they seem to have changed for the worse! We keep praying every day for our little baby-to-be! J

A big thank you to everyone who took part in our Cousins Fundraiser in July! We raised $50.00 toward our adoption travel costs! We appreciate those of you who came out to Cousins that evening and took part in the fundraiser!

Becoming a Pampered Chef Consultant has also proven to be a great thing for the adoption account. I love doing the Pampered Chef shows and it feels even better to be able to put all the commission checks directly in to the adoption account!!

Here is a break down of what is going on.

Step	Cost	Date Paid	Due Date
Application Fee – LSS	$420.00	10/25/10
Application Fee – Holt	$300.00	10/27/10
Home Study Fee – LSS	$2,780.00	1/14/11
USCIS	$890.00	2/2/11
Program Fee – LSS	$1000.00	5/20/11
Remainder of Program Fee – LSS	$750.00		Upon Referral
Dossier Fee – Holt	$3,000.00	5/6/11
Program Fee – Holt	$9,890.00		Upon Referral (have $6,000 grant and an additional $1000 in the bank for this).
Post Placement Fee – LSS	$1,300.00		Upon Referral
Trip 1 to Ethiopia	$8,000.00 (estimated)		Upon Scheduled Travel Date
Trip 2 to Ethiopia	$8,000.00 (estimated)		Upon Scheduled Travel Date

FUNDRAISERS

Just Love Coffee: $5.00 to us for each bag of coffee sold  www.justlovecoffee.com/TheThomas. This fundraiser is on-going until we travel to Ethiopia to bring our child home.

Lifesong for Orphans: Make a tax deductable donation. We have been told that they will continue to accept donations in our name up until we travel to bring home our child. Make checks payable to ‘Lifesong for Orphans’. In memo section: ‘THOMAS #1855 ADOPTION’. Send to Lifesong for Orphans  PO Box 40  202 N Ford Street  Gridley, IL  61744.

PRAYER

-          Finances to continue to come through. Successful fundraisers. Grant money awarded.

-          Jaden working on recording his first album (all proceeds earned to go toward the adoption). He is working hard and hoping for a CD release date of late October! He begins recording for the album NEXT Saturday! (hopefully this will happen this time).

-          Our child (requesting 1 child age 0-12 months, either gender). He/she will go through mourning at the loss of his/her biological parent(s). We pray that this is a smooth transition and that he/she will stay safe and healthy in the orphanage until we are able to bring him/her home!!

-          Our child’s birth parent(s) who will suffer a HUGE loss in relinquishing their child. That they may know God’s love for them and find some comfort that we are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to meet our child and bring him/her home!

Thank you all so much! We are very blessed by each of you!

The Thomas Family

Wow. Check this out...

http://ordinaryheroblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/team-2street-kids-find-many-blessings.html

Ethiopia

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/session7media/the-ethiopia-projects-four-films-that-will-change

Please watch. This is where we will be going.

Not Much New...

There is not much new... Just realizing I haven't posted in a while!

Tomorrow, it will be 2 months since our dossier was accepted and we officially started our LONG waiting process. A month or so, I got an email from a friend we met in our adoption classes. They are adopting from Ethiopia too, same agencies, same ages requested - only difference is that they are 4 months further along on the wait-list then we are. She emailed our agency asking for an update on how long the wait 'might' be for them yet... The response was that they are now estimating wait times from dossier submission to a referral (picture) to be 9-12 months - and on the longer side of that estimate for those requesting a child under the age of 1. Yikes!

And then today we got an email from our agency that there is one orphanage in Ethiopia that they are no longer able to be affiliated with. They had no clue, yet, how this would impact wait times, but I'm certainly guessing it won't speed things up at all.

Well, the past two months haven't been HORRIBLE. But they also haven't been fun (when it comes to the waiting aspect). I would imagine that, as time passes, they will become even LESS fun.

I'm really thankful for my two little ones to keep me busy as we are waiting. I remember trying and trying to get pregnant with Drew (it took a little over a year-and-a-half). It was really difficult because I wanted, more than ANYTHING to be a mommy. Well, it finally happened. Now, I have my two little ones and they keep me so busy, sometimes I can't imagine how I'll keep up with three - or some day - four?! Anyway, I'm grateful to have these two to cherish while I wait.
\
See what I mean?...

Also, please don't forget our Cousins Fundraiser this Thursday the 7th from 4-9pm! We are hoping many of you can make it out for some delicious food benefiting a good cause (if you consider our adoption a good cause. :) ). Should be fun and TASTY! :)

Cousins Fundraiser! July 7th 4-9pm

You WILL need a flyer - so contact me if you don't have one yet and would like one!