Ethiopia

In case you didn't catch the 'o so subtle hint from last Thursday's post, we have made a decision about which country and agency to use. We are going to be adopting from Ethiopia, which is north of Kenya, on the Eastern coast of Africa. We talked about several different countries, but kept coming back to Ethiopia... I am going to mail off our application tomorrow to Carolina Hope, which is a Christian adoption agency that handles both domestic and international adoptions. We have done TONS of research on different agencies and prayed lots, but finally decided that we are totally comfortable with and confident in Carolina Hope.

And just so you can see where the desire to adopt internationally started, enjoy the picture of Kenny below...(This is one of my all-time favorites!) Those of you that know Kenny now, don't find this picture the least bit surprising. Kenny was off playing with the kids, while the rest of his group was on the roof! :)



Kenny in Nairobi, Kenya. Summer 2002.

After seeing this picture, can you possible question our decision to adopt a child from Africa? There are over 4 million orphans in Ethiopia, 1 in 10 newborns will die before reaching 1, and 1 in 6 children will die before age 5...the main cause of childhood deaths: diarrhea and pneumonia, conditions we as Americans usually don't even consider a threat. 1 in 16 children will die from AIDS. The life expectancy is 42. There are only 3 physicians for every 100,000 people. Per capita income is less than $100. These statistics are stunning and even worse is that most of them are from 2005 and 2006, meaning these numbers are terribly outdated and are most likely even more devestating in 2008!

We have the first of our two home study visits tomorrow afternoon. I thought I would be nervous about it, but actually I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. I'm a little less pumped about the physicals that are also tomorrow. I'll let you guys know how that goes later in the week...

Don't Waste Your Life

"The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of ALL peoples."

This is a short video from Carolina Hope's website. The children in this video are from some of the orphanges that work with the adoption agency, Carolina Hope. This orphange is located in Ethiopia in a village with 20,000+ known cases of AIDS and is a very needy area. The quotes throughout the video are from one of our favorite authors, John Piper and his book Don't Waste Your Life.

Watch for the smiles...

Ty-bo...show some nephew love!!

Relay: COMPLETE!

On Friday night, we participated in the Spencer County Relay for Life with our church's team!! We had a blast and the weather was great...Enjoy the pics!!




Nicole and I made an authentic "redneck" truck (it's camo, if you can't tell) to represent our Highview team in the box-car race. While we were proud of our creation, we didn't stick around to watch the race...I don't think that was scheduled until 12:30 am!! Kenny was going to "drive" it, but I had to send him home early with an upset tummy! :(





These are my two favorite little girls in the world!! I just LOVE Grace & Emma Jolly!! (That's their sweet mommy above...Nicole!) They were troopers and I think they walked (or rode) more laps than we did!! Check out their blog, which is sure to have more pictures from the relay as well.

Thanks to everybody who helped us support the cause!!

UPDATE: The Spencer County Relay for Life ended up raising $51,400 and our team raised $2051. YEA!!

One of Two...JULY 1st

We are winding up the paper-collecting marathon, although something in the back of my mind tells me the paperwork is just beginning...We both have physicals scheduled for July 1st and this will be the last little bit of information that we need to gather to complete our home study. (With the exception of that pesky 2005 Alabama State tax refund copy that is MIA...) The home study agency we are using requires two visits and I am happy to report that after a wonderful afternoon of being examined by a doctor, we are going to meet with our adoption worker for the first of our two visits!! So, on July 1st we will complete the first half of our home study. Scheduling that visit today was just one more step in making this whole process seem VERY, VERY real!

He did good!

Thanks for the prayers. Ty is home. His surgery went well, although I believe he ended up having hernias on both sides that had to be repaired. The doctors said the hernias are common in babies who have gastroschisis. I would post some new pictures for those of you in other states, but I can't seem to get anyone to send me any new pictures. Seems they don't want me to know what my own nephew looks like as he grows up...(sniff, sniff)...

Ty-shaped Prayers Please!

Pray for baby Ty! He has to have a minor hernia surgery on Monday morning at 7:15 am and as long as everything goes well, he will go home tomorrow as well.

Since you asked...

I've had several requests for an adoption update...Currently, we are gathering the million and one pieces of paperwork [enter sarcasm] that will be needed for us to complete our home study. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, letters galore from banks, employers, friends, financial information, background checks, physicals, etc...all needed for us to complete our actual home study.

How you can pray for us...We still need to make a decision about a specific agency and country. Pray that God gives us guidance, wisdom and peace as we chose the right agency (& country) to work with.

VBS is over...or is it just beginning?!?

Our campus just completed our first ever Spencer County Vacation Bible School and we had a blast! We had a great crowd each night, many new families, no major medical emergencies (I stress major because we went through some band aids!), many island themed crafts, lots of kids presented with the gospel, bouncies and ice cream and lots of kool-aid!!

...But things are just beginning for 3 of our other campuses as Highview continues VBS for the whole month of June in various locations around Louisville! This should seriously be some kind of record for the longest VBS ever...


A double-headed VBS director in her "dork shirt" or just a picture of Nicole and Jana?

Kenny supervising as our 1st graders play a game...Kenny would probably argue this, but I think he had more fun than the kids...you should have seen him doing the motions to all the Worship Rally songs!!

And everyones favorite part of VBS...SNACK TIME!!

We are "expecting"!!

Adoption has always been something Kenny and I have talked about, even before we married. We always knew that international adoption would be a part of our future, although if asked, we both probably would have said it would be after having biological children. And God, with His funny little way of doing things His way, instead of ours, probably would laugh. ("For He knows the plans He has for you...") We often have plans of our own for our lives, not taking into consideration the paths that God has already planned for us. One would think that we would know better than to expect things to not always go exactly as we have planned..........

A couple of Sunday nights ago (May 18th, to be exact), while at our church's combined worship service, we had one of those eye opening experiences where God finally gets your attention. They showed a video on adoption, complete with statistics about all these children up for adoption in the United States, as well as overseas. Although I don't think Kenny actually got to see the whole video, I sat in the pew in a crazy state of half scared, half excited and just cried. We knew this was something that we were being led to do, but it was as if God was asking, "Hey! What are you guys waiting on?" And when we couldn't answer that question, which took us a couple of days, we made the decision to embark on the wonderful path of adoption.

I don't think that I can put into words some of the emotions that we have felt over the last several days as we have shared this with those around us...excitement, awe, shock, peace, scared, sadness, lack of control, disbelief... We don't have a lot of details yet. We haven't narrowed down an agency or country yet, although we are looking into several Asian (Taiwan & Korea) countries. The first step is a home study. I sent in an application on Wednesday, 5/28, to an agency called Adoption Assistance,and as of 5/29, have already been assigned an adoption social worker. We received a packet on Saturday outlining the home study process and all the different paperwork that we need to gather for the home study and we will schedule our home study as we get closer to collecting all the needed paper work.

We have been greatly encouraged (and educated) by reading and following the blogs of friends and other church members who have been through the adoption process, so my hope is to not only update our friends and family along the way of how things are going, but that this may also be a help to another couple down the road who is adopting. Stay tuned...

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:5

We have a child. Out there. Somewhere. Waiting. For us.