adopting

We are in the middle of the adoption process. We have turned in our dossier and have been told that we will get our referral sometime in the next few months. But now we have to decide (read: hear clearly from the Father) whether to do 1 child or 2 children. And we have always thought that we'd do 2. Because it's a little less expensive to do 2 at once. And we want 2 so that they will have each other to relate to and know what it's like to be adopted from Ethiopia together...

BUT we found out it is SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive to adopt 2. And we don't have the money for the second one. Sooo...we need a sign to appear hanging out our bedroom window.

People have, at one time, asked where we are in the process. That's where we are today.

Trip to the Temple

The areas that we most love to go are often closed. There are various reasons. And I can't go into all of it on here. But suffice it to say, we feel like it's a treat to get to travel to the mountains when they are open.

And I got the chance to travel out in August. It was a really great trip--I got to travel out with a friend, so I got to meet lots and lots of family and friends while I was there. We've found that traveling out with friends is so much more fun (and tiring) than just going on our own...

Anyway, our first day in town we drove out to a temple. And I watched my friends do all the rituals that are done in the temple. It was nothing I hadn't seen before. But it had been long enough that it was fresh, and watching my friends walk through the rituals actually drives the reality home a bit more. So, here are some pictures from the temple. They are a bit smoky just because of the incense burning (the oven that is shown is an incense burning oven)...

The last picture is a friend throwing up her prayer cards into the wind to carry them off to the gods, and she's surrounded by prayer flags. Such is the reality here...

"hospitality house"

We have it on our "to do" list this week to find an apartment that can serve as a home to folks that come from all over our province to go to the hospital in our city. Since medical bills are so expensive in and of themselves, it seemed that lots of our friends or friends' friends have needed a place to stay for free or for really cheap. And it's a bit of a shuffling game to get them in friends' empty apartments or whatever we can help them find here in town.

So, we felt that the Father was putting it on our hearts to find a place that can meet that need for at least 3 families at a time. Mostly for our people. But sometimes, maybe, for people coming in from the states, too...We are just beginning to think about and dream of this house. Really, we mostly hope that it will be used to help a lot of people (and connect us with new relationships as it's used).

As soon as we have pictures of our potential house, we'll put pictures up...

Entering the world of homeschooling

Our electricity is out so I'm writing at a local bakery. Enjoying their air conditioning for a while...

So this will be short.

We have started homeschool with Luke. We have done some reading, math, and a little science and social studies so far. We'll start our science and soc studies curriculums next week. It's taken us an hour and a half at most to finish everything. I'm okay with that. I know it won't last forever!!

We are changing...

I have been pitiful about writing on our blog. Mostly because I feel so scattered in my life. For instance, we live in an Asian country and spend lots of time with Asians. And expats. But a lot of my time is also spent with my kids doing homeschool or activities to stimulate a 5 year old and a 2 year old. And on top of that, I like to sew and make things and do parties.

We also get really passionate about being socially active and adoption. So, I just put a whole bunch of tabs at the top of our blog to sort of organize my brain about our lives and hopefully to stimulate us to write more about our lives--the things we're passionate about...

Now that that's been said, we have had a lot happen in the past months since I last wrote. Teams have come and gone. Prayed. Loved our people. We traveled to Singapore for vacation. We hoped to travel to the roof of the world, but that fell through for now. I traveled up to the mountains to visit a friend. And had an AWESOME time.

And just today, Johnny has been approached to help connect our people with a 5 star hotel in town. There is a lady in this hotel who has such a heart for our people and wants to offer them an internship in the hotel with the potential of becoming a full-time, really good job. Just because she loves them and knows they don't get many chances of this nature. She also wants to sell our peoples' tea all over the world. And we get excited about this because we could maybe help her on this. It's good black tea that has a bit of a sweet flavor. Much more conducive to selling in the states than what our people normally drink: butter tea...

We have had on our hearts for the past several weeks the desire to open a "hospitality house" as it's been named. A place that people can come from the mountains and stay in while their loved ones are staying in the hospital. It's a need we've seen for so long, but just a few weeks ago, the light bulb went on, and we thought, "hey, we could help with that." So we'll be looking for a house in the near future to put people in when they are in town. A sort of hostel for those who need to save their money (and maybe a place for friends to stay when they're in from across the ocean).

So, that's our latest news. Johnny leaves tomorrow to go to spend the weekend with his closest friend in this country for his birthday. We are all excited for him to get to go and love on our friend, Jordan.

And here are 2 pictures from our vacation:

our homes...

We paid our rent yesterday and will get to live in our apartment one more year. Actually, about 11 more months. And then he wants to sell it, so we'll have to move. A fourth move in what'll be 6 years. Boy. He asked us why we don't buy a house. Well, there are lots of reasons...

We have lived here 2 years so far, and it feels like home. And it's where we want to bring two more babies home to. 2 (hopefully) babies from Ethiopia. We don't have any exciting news on that front. We are still doing paperwork. EVERY part of the paperwork has been a long wait. And then, just when we thought we were finished, nope. We're not.

So maybe we'll get to bring them to what now feels like home. Or maybe not. Our home really isn't on earth, so we can live anywhere--I just tend to get attached....

In other news, we had a successful family trip to the mountains with our friends who came to visit from Mississippi/Tulsa. It was so nice to be out there and let the boys run and play and throw rocks into the river and just enjoy the outside. And Johnny got to hike to the most beautiful place he's ever been in this part of the world. Those words came out of his mouth...So it was a wonderful trip. Johnny asked us if we want to go again at the end of June. Kind of. Kind of not. We'll see.

I think it looks pretty, too!!

We do hope to someday be able to get an apartment out there, so maybe we'll have a home out there...

Superboys

My kids have been wearing red napkins clipped with a clothespin for almost 2 days straight.

Because they're superheroes!

This is what we do.