Stem Family Life

Christmas 2010

2011-01-06T22:39:00.000-05:00

Jesus' birthday cake

Snow on December 26

Simplify

2011-01-04T17:33:00.002-05:00

I was sitting in the van with my boys the other day while Kellar and Ashleigh were exchanging a gift; I was thinking about this year and if I could put one word to it what would it be. SIMPLIFY That's it. From this one word came my new blog title. As our journey to Ethiopia has ended I felt lost in what to blog. However our adoption of Tewodros has not ended. We are in the paperwork process and contacting a lawyer to help in all the legalities. I desire to complete all this real soon as this has been an added stress on me and others.
Our 3 gifts at Christmas will continue this year, simplify
I have already purged through my cookbooks. With the internet (allrecipes.com my favorite site for recipes) I no longer have to thumb through cookbooks, they can be so overwhelming at times. Less books, simplify
I asked Kellar for a David Nevue CD for Christmas. I first heard his music on another blog and it was exactly what I needed to calm me and bring me to worship Jesus. Piano music, simplify
Candles being lit almost every night, simplify
Less TV, simplify
Okay I have 3 kids who are hungry, fast food as daddy is picking up international students.

Three Gifts

2010-12-13T15:30:00.003-05:00

This Christmas I desired to be simple.
At church we have been looking at the Advent Conspiracy, spend less, give more.
I also came across an article in The Old Schoolhouse magazine called " Gifts of Three for Christmas" you can check out the authors blog at acontedtedcommonlife.blogspot.com.
This was it, I knew what our family needed to do.
Now our family has never done the Santa thing. I know sounds odd, but we have no regrets. Our children know that JESUS is real and the reason we celebrate CHRISTmas.

Traditions we have:
Christmas Eve our children receive a new pair of pj's
Kellar reads the Christmas story from Luke 2 when we wake on Christmas morning
I make a Jesus birthday cake (always red velvet, for the blood he shed for us)
If we are home we have sausage casserole for breakfast and lasagna for dinner

So back to our newest tradition.
This year we will each receive 3 gifts. To symbolize the 3 Jesus received from the Wise Men.
The gold gift is the most expensive, what they most desire
Frankincense (a spice burned in the Temple) is a gift to draw the recipient closer to God (book, Bible, CD)
The third gift of myrrh is something to cover the body as myrrh was used as an ointment to cover a dead body.

Our children have taken their wish list and each told us the answer to this question: If you were to only receive 1 gift for Christmas what would it be? Ashleigh said a bed, Elijah a Bible, and Tewodros a DS game

If YOU could only have 1 gift this Christmas what would it be? My prayer would be for each of you who do not know Jesus that you will discover His love this Christmas.

August 31, 2009

2010-08-30T20:29:00.002-04:00

It is so hard to believe that we have been able to hold and love Tewodros for a year. We have had our good times and our not so good times. Overcoming the language was the easy part, it has been the day in and day out things. Tewodros has amazing capabilities. He loves to be active at this point he has only tried soccer on a team next year we hope to add baseball, but who knows maybe basketball, football, tae kwon do....

The following is taken from Kellar's journal. He wrote this while we were in Ethiopia. This is the story of delivery (read an earlier post on my labor).

So, we arrived in Addis Ababa last night just after 7:30. It took us over two hours to get out of Bole airport. After making it through the visa office, money exchange, customs, and baggage claim, we made our way through a mob-like Ethiopian crowd waiting for visiting loved ones. We were greeted by Travis, the Gladney representative, and Benjim, our driver and soon to be friend. We loaded our luggage, passed off two suitcases worth of orphanage supplies, and headed to the New Flower guest house.

When we arrived we learned we would be the only guests for Sunday night, but two other families would be arriving early Monday morning. All we wanted was to call Ashleigh and Eli to let them know we had arrived safely, then get some water, a snack, and a bed to sleep in as soon as possible.

It was easy to fall asleep just shortly after our heads hit the pillows. Our bodies were exhausted. However, no level of exhaustion could overcome our jet-lag. Though we had gone to sleep around 10:45 pm, at 4:00 am we were wide awake. For two hours, from 4:00-6:00, we laid there, side-by-side and WIDE awake. We tossed and turned; we talked; we played music on the iphone; we contemplated what our meeting on Monday would be like. Travis had told us before we left the airport that he would bring Tewodros by the guest house by 10:00 am. We were very anxious! What would he be like? Would he like us? How will he fit in? What will it take us all to adapt? Are we really here doing this?

I thought back to the plane as we flew over Ethiopia. It was early evening; the sun had set, but it was SO dark. No lights from busy streets, small towns, or villages. A sporadic flicker of a row of lights, but mostly darkness. So unlike America where there are lights everywhere. So many we can't even see the night sky in many places. As we approached Addis Ababa we finally saw lights, but not what we would expect for a city of over 1,000,000 people. Even the runway at the airport was sparsely lit.

Finally, about 6:00 am, sleep came again for both of us. But not for long, by 7:30 or 8:00 other guests were moving in and the house was a stir.

After showering, and eggs and bread for breakfast, we were ready, or so we thought. Travis called to check on us, and to let us know things were a few hours behind schedule. So we called Benjim for a ride to the supermarket, then lunch. At the store we bought bottled water and a few snacks we hoped Tewodros would like. It was now about 11:30, Travis had said he would bring Tewodros around 1:00, so with an hour and half to spare we headed to Antica for pizza. We decided to order take-away so as to make sure we were at the guest house when Tewodros arrived. As we parked the car Benjim's phone rang. He answered and after a few words handed the phone to me. It was Travis. He had Tewodros and would be at the guest house in 20 minutes. There was no time for lunch, but at my request Benjim ran in to get a menu so we could send him back for take-away after meeting Tewodros.

We rushed back to the New Flower to find Mark and Pam (also with Gladney) waiting in the living room for the arrival of Jackson, who would be arriving with Tewodros.

After just a few minutes, long enough to grab our camera and thicken the anxiousness in the room, we heard the honk at the gate. We all watched nervously out the door as the white SUV driven by "Travelus" rounded the corner. We all sheepishly, but hurridly, moved outside and watched and waited while Travis and Christy retrieved the children from the back seat. Tewodros was first. He was beautiful. He looked just like the photos, only smaller and younger than I had imagined.

Travis carried 'Teddy' over to us, introduced him, and placed him in Suzanne's arms. the last year of prayer, paperwork, and planning, suddenly seemed to have a purpose, an end. It was so real...

Suzanne handed Teddy a yellow wooden car (makina) we had brought for him. He seemed to like it. After a few minutes we moved inside to sit down and meet our new son, while the other family was united. Once inside we sat down, and put Teddy down to play. Within a few seconds he began to cry and ran outside. We followed him as he spent the next several minutes crying, screaming, and fighting to get back into the SUV. Was he rejecting us? Was this normal? What should we do? These and other questions raced through our minds. He didn't want to have anything to do with us. In my mind, we needed to fix this because we were getting on a plane in less than a week to bring Tewodros home, but at the same time I was heartbroken for Suzanne. She wanted so much to nurture, hold, love him like only a mother can, but he didn't want that right now.

As Travis tried to reason with Teddy, he made it known that he wanted to go back, back to the foster care center where he had lived with dozens of other orphaned children waiting for their loving families for the past several months. We were soon loaded up in the car with Benjim and a foster care worker to drive 45 minutes to the center on the other side of Addis. Once we were moving Suzanne broke out a ball and a bottle of bubbles. Tears soon turned to occasional smiles, then laughter. However, we had promised we would take him to the center, so we continued on our way.

Once there Tewodros rushed in, but all the children were upstairs napping. We continued to play with the bubbles, then a big green ball, then the yellow wooden car. As Teddy and I rolled the car back and forth across the wooden floor, I began to say "Tewodros," as I rolled the car to him. Soon, he was saying, "papa," as he rolled the car back to me. Mommy got on the floor and soon he was saying, "mama," as he rolled the car to her. Things seemed to be looking better.

After what seemed like an hour of playing, Tewodros was getting hungry and sleepy. One of the workers got him some shiro and injera. After he ate, they took him up to his bed. We followed closely behind. He climbed to a top bunk and laid down opposite another boy with whom he shared a bed. Suzanne and I were offered shiro and injera by the workers sitting around a pot of food. I ate a few bites, and the girls tried to feed Suzanne.

Thirty minutes later Tewodros was finished resting and had stirred all the boys in the room. We were all back downstairs and the large room was now alive and full of children playing and wanting their picture taken. After meeting Tewodros' friends, we asked Helena, the on site case worker, how to best take Teddy back to the guest house with us, she suggested giving him another hour or so, then try to get him outside, to build distance between the other children. A few minutes later he disappeared and had ventured outside on his own. Suzanne and I gathered our things and went out with him and played in the yard as he showed off through the barred windows. After a short while we told him it was time to go.

Teddy left with us willingly, but about half way back he shut down to us, becoming very sad, and soon fell asleep. When we arrived at the guest house I did the "daddy thing" and carried him up to our bed. When I laid him down, he immediately jumped to his feet and ran back outside to the car. This time Mommy carried him up. Suzanne rocked Teddy, holding him close, singing, and whispering, "I love you," from 3:30 until 5:00. Teddy was asleep. Much to our distress and concern, Teddy did not wake from a nap, but slept until 6:00 am the next morning. When he awoke, his first word was "mama," or "papa," depending on who's telling the story.

Thank you for reading a most treasured day to our family.

Beach Scrapbook

2010-07-27T23:51:00.000-04:00

Make a scrapbooking design

Stem Christian School

2010-07-27T23:29:00.002-04:00

The next school year is rapidly approaching. I am still trying to gather all my curriculum for a 6th, 2nd, and 1st grader.
MATH: I have loved Saxon math since Ashleigh was in kindergarten, so we are sticking with it. Ashleigh will be in 8/7, Elijah in 2 and Tewodros in 1.
HISTORY: We will continue in our study in The Mystery of History vol. 2 (middle ages). This is a book we can read together and then do the separate activities.
ENGLISH: Ashleigh has enjoyed the Rod and Staff program. I am going to try Shurley English with the boys. This program involves jingles to help the child learn the parts of speech.
SPELLING: As soon as I can get my hands on a reasonably priced Spell to Write and Read for the boys we will be good to go. This is a curriculum which uses the 70 phonograms and 26 or so spelling rules in the English language to teach a child to spell, and read. I hope to include cursive writing as well. One can read the pros and cons of teaching cursive first, but after having them print this might be the way to go. Ashleigh will continue with her spelling curriculum and just learn the spelling rules and phonograms with SWR.
SCIENCE: Ashleigh will be taking part in a science class taught by a homeschool mom with her phD. The boys and I will study nutrition, space and whatever else interests them.
GEOGRAPHY: I really want my kids to have a better understanding of the world and peoples God created. Therefore we will be using the text A Child's Geography: Explore His Land and Hands on Geography.

One year ago

2010-06-15T21:26:00.002-04:00

One year ago today we received the call. Our caseworker called me late afternoon letting me know she had our referral. We were not expecting our referral so soon. I proceeded to call Kellar, he was meeting with some other ministers and there response to my call was that it sounded like a "your wife is in labor call". He came home and we sat at the computer screen as we were given all the information on our potential new son, Tewodros. We accepted our referral a couple days later.
We are currently enjoying our summer vacation. We just returned from a trip to the midwest to visit our families and friends.
I am busy cleaning our school area and our bedroom (it becomes the dumping ground for paper). I am getting ready for our annual homeschool curriculum sale; hopefully I can make some purchases for next year. I know what I plan on using, just need to find it at the best price.
Ashleigh completed the 5th grade, I now have a middle schooler. She took part in Smiles and Frowns Playhouse again in the performance of Scheherazade; Legend of the Arabian Nights. She also played spring soccer and her team placed 1st in the tournament. She has recently started sewing and knitting.
Elijah has finished 1st grade. He really enjoyed his math as well as doing map work. He has had a huge year adjusting to being a big brother.
Tewodros finished kindergarten. He enjoyed his school time and wanted to do everything Elijah was doing. He also played spring soccer (he is our all around athlete). He can hardly wait till he can play with a team again. He loved scoring goals, drop kicking, heading... The first time he drop kicked the ball was during a game and all the parents thought we taught it to him. He learned it by watching Ashleigh's team. He wants to play baseball next year as well as soccer.

New Year

2010-02-19T20:13:00.004-05:00

2009 what a year! Now that it is 2010, what does God have in store for our family. The easiest way for me to share what is happening is to share some pictures. The first picture shows Tewodros in snow for the first time. He called it "snowing throwing". We had recently seen the movie Elf and he imagined that he could throw snow as fast as Elf. He gave it a try. He loved the snow. Next you see him digging into his first Christmas stocking. Ashleigh is holding her newest cousin Bryce. Then Elijah and Tewodros are laying up on the steps watching as Travis and Connie have their first dance. Then a snow scene from our first snow Saturday January 30th. Okay I hit the preview button and the pictures are in reverse order, sorry about that.

Cardboard Testimony

2010-01-14T16:13:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday, January 10th, Christ's Church celebrated 10 years. Our family was asked to participate in the cardboard testimonies. Check out the video.

Quick Stem Update

2009-11-18T20:22:00.003-05:00

We are doing okay. There are still many really hard days. With God all things are possible. Our family is so blessed by the things we have. It's amazing how quickly one small lego can cause a huge problem/ mess for mommy to fix.
Homeschool status: Ashleigh is doing great in her 5th grade studies. She is currently reading The Island of the Blue Dolphins. She is doing something with decimals and division in math. We are on a plant unit in science (we do this with the boys).
Elijah our booming 1st grader is catching on to all the letters/ sounds. This is a huge answer to prayer. In math he can count past 100, the 1st time he did it I think he scared himself; he stopped at 106 as though that was to far.
Tewodros is in kindergarten. I went on and put him here as he was observing Elijah and seemed ready to start. He loves the letter/ sound book he does with Elijah. He can count to 11. He loves to sing our ABC song. He can tell you the days of the week. His ability to speak English is amazing, language immersion.
Daddy update: He knows when to take mommy on a date night. Thanks dear! He goes on and gets 2 babysitters (yes we now use 2, hopefully not for long). Our sitters are awesome helpful college students.
Please continue to pray for our family.

Afternoon at Briley's

2009-10-25T22:21:00.002-04:00

Saturday October 17 while daddy was at a CCF board meeting the kids and I went to Briley's to pick out some pumpkins.

Orphan Sunday in 4 weeks

2009-10-04T12:47:00.002-04:00

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

ED is no fun

2009-10-03T18:15:00.002-04:00

Wow, what a week at the Stem house. The pictures in the previous post were taken a few hours before the following happened. Teddy fell off the bunk bed ladder Wednesday night, and when he did he busted his lip and knocked some teeth loose. I was in the room in a flash had him in my arms and the other 2 are getting a cloth, ice, and the phone to call Kellar who is at CCF. I tell Kellar to meet me at the emergency room because Teddy has cut his lip. We go to urgent care arriving around 9:15 pm. The wound is to deep for them to treat so we are driven to the ED. Kellar stays with him, I take Ashleigh and Eli home to bed; by this time it is 10:30. Teddy ended up having several stitches inside and outside his mouth. Kellar says he was a trooper. Teddy and Kellar arrived back home at 2:45am.
Thursday afternoon we go to the dentist for them to xray any damage. No visible damage. Yeah! He will Just have soreness for awhile.
Last night (Friday) Teddy wakes up diarrhea, vomiting, and a fever of 104. We tend to those needs at home during the wee hours of the morning. At 9:15 when he wakes (2 hours later than usual) he is still with fever. We call our pediatrician and they want to see him. They run a flu test (negative). They think he has developed an infection and will have to be sedated again for them to tend to his mouth. Thank you Brent and Emelie for staying with Ashleigh and Eli while I go to the ED with them. We are discharged at 3pm. Another long day at the hospital. Teddy is such a good sport to allow the doctors and nurses to poke him where he hurts.
Please continue to pray for our family as we cross the language barrier. I bet in these first 4 1/2 weeks Teddy has learned over 100 words and we have continued to learn and use his Amharic. There is a big part of me that does not what him to loose his native tongue (although in actuality he already has). You see Teddy grew up in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. He knew Tigrayan and spoke Tigrayan until February of 2009 when he entered the Gladney foster care center. Where he quickly learned Amharic.

Sept. 30th camera fun

2009-09-30T20:45:00.001-04:00

2009-09-14T14:30:00.000-04:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

New Pictures of Tewodros!

2009-09-03T16:19:00.002-04:00

These are the newest pictures from Suzanne & Kellar & Tewodros. They're doing well so far. Please pray for them to have safe travels and for the language barrier to be broken down quickly. Thanks

Ashleigh & Eli

Update from the Stem's

2009-09-01T09:06:00.002-04:00

Hey, it's Ashleigh. My parents made it to Ethiopia. And they met Tewodros. Here is the email my dad sent us:

Yesterday was long and hard. Tewodros came to us in the morning but began crying and wanted to back to foster care center. We went with him and met and played with his friends. His closest friend left Sunday which made Monday really hard. After a couple hours he went outside and left with us willingly. He was sad and quiet on the ride back. He fell asleep in the car but when I carried him to bed he woke up and went back down and out the front door. Suz carried him back up and held and rocked him until he fell asleep after about an hour or more, about 4:45. He slept until almost 6:00, some on his cot some in bed with us. Suz and I went to sleep around 9:45, but were awake from 2-4 from time adjustment. We awoke to him wispering Mama and Papa. So sweet. Today is a much better day so far. Going to market soon. Please pray for continued transition.

Here's a link to some pictures

Leaving on a jet plane tomorrow

2009-08-28T08:58:00.002-04:00

Thank you to all who have followed our adoption journey to our son. I am a mix of emotions nervousness and excitement. Jesus told his followers I will not leave you as orphans. James tells us true/pure religion is to look after orphans... God has adopted me into his forever family. Now our family has given a little boy in a far away place a forever family. Tomorrow evening we will board a plane in Raleigh, then DC. This plane will fly us to the beautiful country of Ethiopia (I have never been before, but have seen hundreds of pictures of the landscape and people). On Monday morning I will be given the awesome joy to hold my newest son.

A few things we are taking:

Suzanne:

2 pants, 2 skirts, 2 capris, 8 tops, 2 pj's, 1 sweatshirt, 1 jacket, 3 pairs shoes

Kellar:

4 pants, many shirts, 3 pairs shoes

Tewodros:

2 shoes, 5 pants, 10 shirts, 3 pajamas, 2 jackets

2 suitcases full of our humanitarian aid items:

box of toothbrushes from our dentist, several packs of diaper, 3 large formula containers, 8 tubes A&D ointment, 4 wipes packages, 20 baby outfits, several packs of bottles, crayons, markers, colored pencils, coloring books, beach balls...

A backpack full of fun stuff for Tewodros

Snacks

Blanket for Tewodros

soccer ball, floppy frisbee, and beach ball for Tewodros

PAPERWORK (documents, itinerary, passport, airline tickets...)

MONEY (thank you bank ladies who helped me with finding 100 bills after a certain year)

While we are gone Ashleigh will post on here when they hear from us

Stay tuned many pictures of Ethiopia, our trip, and our family will follow in the weeks after our return

INTRODUCING!!!!!

2009-07-31T13:30:00.002-04:00

Tewodros Samuel Kellar Stem

NEW COURT DATE!!!

2009-07-28T10:24:00.000-04:00

FRIDAY JULY 31st

God's Timing is PERFECT

2009-07-24T14:27:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, we received a call informing us that our court date has been postponed until further notice (we hope to receive a call with our new date next week). I rest in the fact that God is in CONTROL! There were many families affected by this, please also keep them in your prayers.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord...

I know that our little one is being well cared for by his loving caregivers. Elijah told me today that he loves his new brother more than me. What more can a mom ask for than her children to love each other and pray for each other.

We no longer have a land line, so where our phone once sat now sits a picture of our little one, this made my family smile!

Hopefully I can post some more exciting news next week.

court date is fast approaching

2009-07-22T15:46:00.004-04:00

In less than 48 hours we will know the results for our 1st court date (prayerfully only court date, but with any adoption one never knows). I am a very anxious nesting mom. I know one thing and that is God is in control. Who knew that on May 1st when we made the waitlist that in 2 3/4 months we would have a court date. I have already started preparing for packing. We still need to gather our humanitarian supplies, some pants for our boy, his backpack of activities... (if anyone in the family wishes to help let us know). Elijah's clothes from last year will most likely fit, we have discovered Elijah is tough on his pant/ jean knees; therefore, we need pants.

The M will return to work tomorrow after being on vacation for over 2 weeks. Since our court date is Friday they will be processing our paperwork along with several others from our agency. Praying all goes well and no problems.

FYI: we have the bunk bed assembled

Update on our little guy

2009-07-13T21:14:00.003-04:00

He is growing! He has grown 4cm and .7 kg in a month. We received another beautiful picture today. He has the cutest smile.

Keep praying as next Thursday and Friday our big days for our family.

The M is on vacation until the 23rd. This is the day they will decide and then it goes to court the 24th.

Labor Pains

2009-07-10T12:58:00.002-04:00

I have been pregnant twice. I loved being pregnant and feeling our baby kick. I however did not like labor. But in the end when they placed Ashleigh and later Elijah in my arms it was all worth it. Ashleigh was due December 30th. Kellar and I celebrated Christmas at home (as family was 12 hours away). I was ready for a Christmas baby. Kellar would take me through mall parking lots and over speed bumps (not at the slow down speed you should go over them). My water broke the night of the 26th (Kellar will tell you it was during SNL). Off to the hospital we went, where I was induced (yuck) because I was not having contractions. Ashleigh arrived on the 27th.

Elijah's delivery was a little bit different. I took Ashleigh to see a movie on the 15th (feeling a little weird on the inside). The feelings apparently were contractions (new to me). That night I woke up with definite contractions, I was in labor. Elijah arrived in time for our midwife to have lunch on the 17th.

Now we are getting very close to delivery of our son from Ethiopia. In 2 weeks we will know for sure how close we are to meeting him, holding him, loving him, .... 2 weeks to finish his room (as after this date if we pass court we will be making travel arrangements)

In May when we decided our summer travel plans we had no idea at that time why we traveled in June instead of July. Now we know, it was so we could put all our energy into bringing our son home. We ended our vacation and labor began.

Thank you to all who read my blog and share in our story of this awesome journey our GREAT GOD has carried us on, our journey to Ethiopia!

COURT DATE!!!

2009-07-08T12:33:00.003-04:00

We received the call yesterday afternoon. We have been scheduled for court on July 24th. There are many families in our agency going to court this day. For those wondering, we do not actually appear in court. Our agency represents us.

Remember this day in your prayers, the decisions are often made the day prior. Please pray the judge appears to hear the cases as well as the electricity to remain on. Pray for us as this is going really FAST. God is up to something amazing in our family. If we pass court we will be traveling at some point in August (Kellar's busiest month). Everything will all work out. GOD IS IN CONTROL! PRAISE HIM!

Update

2009-07-02T12:43:00.005-04:00

We received an update on our little guy this week. It is good to hear he is doing well. Ashleigh and Elijah are excited to know more about their little brother. We have started getting the boys' room ready. Check out the cool closet. Kellar once again did all the painting and of course the assembling of the closetmaid system. Hopefully real soon we will have the room walls painted and a new bed assembled. I am also going to post a few pics from our vacation last month.

Prayer points:

1. For our court date (remember courts close from 8/8-9/25)

2. For our Christian brothers and sisters in North Africa (where Kellar did his prayer journey in May)

3. God's continual provisions for our family

4. For Kellar as he makes preparations for campus ministry stuff for the upcoming school year

5. For our family to keep Jesus in the center of it all

“He has become such a grown up kid that he has become a mediator when his friends fight. He is observed to be more loving and caring to other kids. Sometimes when he comes up the younger kids start crying for his toy. He quickly gives them what he is playing with and takes another one for himself. A four year old was crying because a six year old was playing with a toy that she wanted to play with. He talked to 6 year old and convinced him that he should give to her. He has recently started painting drawings and he shows great excitement when it is time to paint.”

Elijah's Kindergarten Graduation

2009-06-30T09:20:00.007-04:00

Wow, with all the excitement with our referral I have neglected to blog pics from Elijah's graduation. On Saturday May 30th, 6 home schooled kids graduated in the first HOME graduation ceremony. Here are some pictures from that event. Later in the day, Kellar was a groomsman in Glen's wedding.

REFERRAL!

2009-06-16T11:57:00.002-04:00

Yesterday at 4:16 we received the highly unexpected referral call from Mary. I called Kellar and he came home so together we could see and hear about our little boy. He is an adorable happy 3 year old. Kellar drove down to church camp last night so Ashleigh could see him as well.

We did not expect a call at 6 1/2 weeks waiting. I was preparing Elijah's summer tent bed when she called guess soon we will be preparing our boys' bunk bed.

1 month down

2009-05-31T19:25:00.005-04:00

Well, we have now been officially waiting 1 month to be matched to our little boy. At times I get the feeling ours can be a quick match, meaning we could know who he is next month. Then and more often I get the feeling that we could be waiting past rainy season. See, if we get matched real soon we could potentially travel during the early rainy season. The rainy season will only affect us negatively if we get matched before August then we will not have a court date until October. Okay, this is probably really confusing. Basically, I would love to beat the rainy season, but a big part of me says it will all be after. The average wait time for a child is 4 months. Anyways just pray for our little boys health, his development, his biological family's situation (AIDS, poverty...relinquishment), and us as we prepare our home for him. We hope to start next month really getting the boys' room ready (bunk bed, purge toys, closet space...).

1 yucca plant in our back yard

Things to Do

2009-05-21T13:33:00.002-04:00

In no particular order my list of things to do:

1. Pray for little brother (wait time for a referral is 4 months, pray for early referral)

2. Pray for Kellar as he finishes out his mission trip he has been gone since the 11th of May will be home on the 24th

3. Finish 08-09 school year, should be done next Friday the 29th (doing school over the weekend in order to finish)

4. File, file, file stacks of paperwork

5. Shred from stacks

6. Go through kids rooms, we have too much stuff

7. Make more strawberry jam

8. Make another to do list

Beach Fun

2009-05-11T20:23:00.004-04:00

Elijah quote "I love new little brother, but when he comes homes I will love him as much as Ashleigh."

A couple weekends ago we were at the beach for CCF staff/family retreat. Our family took a few minutes and enjoyed playing together.

We are on the waitlist!!!

2009-05-05T09:03:00.002-04:00

We received the official email last night. We are on the waitlist. This actually took effect 5-1-09, our caseworker was out of town. We are all very excited! We need to finish our 10 hours of training while we wait.

Dossier Update

2009-05-04T10:35:00.002-04:00

While at the CCF staff and family retreat this weekend we got word that our dossier is complete!!! It is now on its way to DC and then to the Ethiopian Embassy and then onto Ethiopia to be translated. We should be hearing real soon about the waitlist. Wait time for a toddler is 4 months, so say by September we should know more.

Soccer

2009-04-27T18:23:00.003-04:00

Elijah had his first soccer game Saturday. Kellar is his coach. His team was unable to score any goals but they had fun running and kicking the soccer ball around the field. Elijah played goalie for a part of the game. I think he is still unsure of himself. We will miss this Saturday's games but will be back strong the next week.

Ashleigh's team did really well. I told Ashleigh's coach who is that girl that looks like my daughter but this girl was running and kicking the ball. This was her best game in 4 seasons. Here are some pictures of our soccer stars.

Approval came today

2009-04-15T15:05:00.003-04:00

Oh my, I am so excited. One of Elijah's chores on Wednesday is to get the mail. Ashleigh was reading to him so I went on down to the mailbox, saw a large envelope, grabbed it, saw it was from NC Immigration and ran into the house practically in tears shouting "oh happy day".

This is the day I have long waited for. Thank you to all who prayed. I have a couple papers to gather with this and send it off to be authenticated.

We are on the way to the waiting list!!!

Where were you 15 years ago?

2009-04-09T09:49:00.003-04:00

I was saying "I do" to Kellar!

Today we celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

Science Experiment

2009-04-08T20:15:00.004-04:00

Check out my young scientists. Last week they collected water samples (well actually I collected Ashleigh's). I was in Bath, NC over the weekend on the Pamlico River so I decided to gather some water for her. Elijah's water came from a ditch near our home.

Yesterday you can see what the next step was. Next week they will l

ook at the results that are growing in the petri dishes (maybe salmonella, e-coli...).

Every 15 seconds somewhere in the world a child dies from water related disease (3800 children a day!!!)- world vision

I Must be Crazy, I joined Facebook

2009-04-06T20:36:00.002-04:00

I have had this crazy idea for some time now to get onto facebook. Kellar has been on for awhile, never much interest on my part until recently. Maybe because this year marks mine (and Kellar's) 20th high school reunion. Well last night I joined. Kellar started me out by letting his friends know I was now on facebook. My day has been spent confirming friends and seeing what facebook is all about.

Adoption update: I needed to renew my doctor's form, did that still waiting for the call to say it has been notarized

We are still waiting for NC USCIS, we were finger printed last November, still waiting What a day of rejoicing it will be when the mailman delivers our approval letter

Ashleigh's Ruby Bridges Speech

2009-03-23T21:10:00.003-04:00

Yeah!

2009-03-13T16:23:00.002-04:00

I am so excited we finally sent off the majority of our paperwork (still waiting on NC USCIS).

I told the FedEx man that he may think I was silly but I needed a picture. Please pray for these documents as they travel to New York to a lady who is going to handle the next few stages of authentication for our dossier.

Tonight Ashleigh presents her Ruby Bridges speech to a live captive audience of homeschool families. I hope to post a video.

Ethiopian Experience in Philadelphia

2009-03-12T19:26:00.002-04:00

Before Kellar left for Philadelphia I told him there were several Ethiopian restaurants in west Philadelphia. (I went to ethiopianrestaurant.com where you can find any Ethiopian restaurant in the US) I found out today that tonight they are going to an Ethiopian coffee shop and tomorrow nights dinner is Ethiopian (I have to admit that for this I wish I was there) I told him to say a prayer for our child while he is there.

Daffodil Smiles

2009-03-08T13:29:00.003-04:00

On Saturday afternoon we spent some time at a daffodil field with daddy before he left for Philadelphia (Sunday morning) to do inner city mission work with some staff and students from CCF.

Update

2009-02-25T21:17:00.002-05:00

I went to the USCIS website and saw that they are now (as of December 30) processing September applications. We applied in October so now that it is almost March I pray they are doing our paperwork soon if not maybe it was done yesterday. We are just about ready to send our paperwork to the next step. I took our pile to our women's Bible study this morning and asked if they could pray over it before we send it off.

Homeschool news:

Elijah has successfully written each letter and number (now to learn the sounds for each)

He is doing simple addition and subtraction as well as counting by 10's, 2's and 5's.

Ashleigh is preparing her final speech for her speech and debate class on Ruby Bridges if you do not know about Ruby please ask Ashleigh to tell you sometime. After her speech on orphans she raised over $5 from her class. We raised about $25 for Change for Orphans.

Ashleigh is zooming through her math curriculum, instead of jumping ahead to the next book we will spend some time in workbooks building on her skills, maybe even some logic problems.

We are reading Misty of Chincoteague.

Bump in Road

2009-02-05T21:23:00.002-05:00

As with any international adoption there may come bumps in the road. I was hoping at this point to have our paperwork complete and on its way to Ethiopia. Well the USCIS office in NC is still processing applications from last summer. We applied in October. They need to send us an important document which states we can bring our child home to the United States. Please, please pray for our file to be on the top of the stack very soon. Ashleigh and Elijah pray every day for their brother to be home soon, please join them in that prayer. As it says in James 5:16 "the prayer of a righteous man is POWERFUL and EFFECTIVE."

Our agency has also extended the wait time for a referral to 6 1/2 months from the previous 4-6 months. As soon as all our paperwork has been authenticated by the secretary of state offices in several states, then we are placed on the wait list for a referral.

Our New Kid's Bathroom

2009-01-29T19:23:00.001-05:00

Check out Kellar's awesome work in our newly decorated kid's bathroom!

I did it

2009-01-28T18:50:00.006-05:00

I have successfully figured out how to get pictures from a digital camera onto the computer and ultimately this blog. Yes, I know I am slow in this. I have just relied on Kellar to do this. He is at CCF right now and I wanted to post some pictures from last weeks snow. See now I can post snow pics the day of or after instead of a week later. Yes, Greenville had snow last Tuesday January 20th and Wednesday the 21st! This was our first snow in I believe in 3 years! Ashleigh measured 4 inches in our backyard. The kids went outside several times each day. Because Elijah does not have boots his 2 pair of socks and shoes were soaked each time.

FYI:

Our FBI checks came today, you would be happy to know Kellar and I do not have a police record (Ashleigh was scared for a moment when she thought her daddy's said yes he was arrested).

2009-01-23T16:09:00.003-05:00

Top picture we are eating lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Elijah's first picture with a live character at our recent Disney trip (Dec. 4-10) this picture was taken on the 9th. He had no desire until this day to have his picture taken. We were at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom.

Ashleigh

2009-01-23T15:54:00.002-05:00

I am going to brag on my big girl, who by the way will let you know she is now 10. She is in a homeschool speech and debate club. Basically at her age the kids are learning public speaking skills (kids 12 and up can be in the debate part their topic has to do with India and US relations). My first public speaking class was in college and I dreaded it especially the persuasive speech part. Well back to Ashleigh's speech class. Their assignment on Jan. 15 was to prepare a 3-5 minute persuasive speech. She was the least bit thrilled. As a typical child she put it off until I nagged her enough this past Tuesday. She had no idea what to speak about, so with mom's help she decides to persuade her friends to give their change to help orphans. After the Steven Curtis Chapman concert last spring we have been saving our change in a bucket "Change for Orphans" check out showhope.org. Ashleigh did an awesome job yesterday! Not all the class was prepared with a speech. The teacher I found out later had not even shown the video about persuasive speeches. She told in her speech that she would be bringing her bucket for the next several weeks for any change they wish to give (the change goes to showhope not to us) Last night she gave her speech to her daddy. He was very impressed. We may be using this speech later to help with our adoption (just changing the bucket part).

Please pray for our friends Todd and Gretchen (campus ministers in Illinois) who left today to bring hope their Ethiopian daughter. They will meet her on Tuesday.

Also pray that we receive the rest of our documents soon so we can get our dossier completed!

Oh my it has been a long time

2009-01-08T13:06:00.002-05:00

Okay, for those of you keeping (trying to keep) up to date on our adoption progress, my sincerest apologies. How time really does fly.

Well on December 17, Gladney approved us to adopt from Ethiopia. YEAH! So now we are officially in the next phase (preparing our dossier). This is the important documents that will go to Ethiopia.

Today Kellar and I will be going downtown to the police department to be fingerprinted. Yes, you may be asking like I have (we were fingerprinted by United States Immigration) so why a new set of fingerprints by the FBI? I still have no answer other than another step in the process of international adoption actually I believe domestic adoptions are fingerprinted at the local police dept. Once this is complete it will be mailed to FBI to be processed.

We have also been working on some additional paperwork. Every document included in the dossier needs to be authenticated by the Secretary of State from which the document originated. For us this means sending stuff to Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Texas (our agency state as well as health insurance company location). After this step is complete Gladney will place on on the waiting list for our son. Then all the documents go to the US Dept. of State in DC and then to the Ethiopia Embassy in DC. A courier will deliver from one building to the other and charge us $75. Then our dossier will be on its way to Ethiopia!

My timeline to send things to the Secretary of State level is the first week in February. This depends on if all paperwork is in our hands by then (from FBI and USCIS).

We will then have a wait time of 6 months before a referral.

While we are waiting we will be applying for some adoption grants and doing some other fundraising to hopefully cover $20,000 (yikes!) But we serve a BIG God. He has called us to international adoption and He will provide the means to do it. Please be in prayer for us and if God leads you to support us we will possibly apply for a matching grant where an agency will match what donations we receive.

NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY!

2008-11-15T17:11:00.002-05:00

Yes, today is National Adoption Day. My prayer is for the 143 million orphans in the world, of which 4.3 million are in Ethiopia that's 12% of the children in Ethiopia

720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone

1 in 6 children die before their 5th birthday

44% of the population in Ethiopia is under 15 years old

60% of children in Ethiopia suffer from the effects of malnutrition

1/2 of the children in Ethiopia will never attend school

Ethiopia's median age is 17.8 years

1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)

per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa

in the 90's, the population (3%) grew more than food production (2.2%)

Ethiopia doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000

in 1993, after 30 years of war Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia without a seaport

1n 2009, we bring our son home from Ethiopia

2008-11-12T21:02:00.003-05:00

I hope you are all getting excited for us. Things are moving. Kellar's birth certificate arrived today. Our social worker called to schedule our homestudy- Monday November 17 at 8:30 am for 4 hours. Pray for us during this visit.

Also today, our agency informed all Ethiopia families that the referral time has increased from 3-5 months to 4-6 months (whole months). Not to bad. Now this is after our paperwork is in Ethiopia and translated.

I'm on a new food kick!

Tonight for dinner we had pumpkin sage sauce over cheese ravioli.

Basically it is alfredo sauce (10oz.) with 1/2 cup pumpkin (I added extra) and a tablespoon sage along with 1 cup water from the pasta. It went over well.

Application complete

2008-11-11T22:52:00.003-05:00

Yeah!!!

Yesterday I was able to mail the remainder of our application. This included my doctor's form, Kellar's employment letter, proof of health insurance from company, and 12 pictures of our home and family.

Hopefully we hear very soon about our homestudy visit. Once this is complete and in the Gladney office they will review our application and decide to make us officially in the Ethiopia program. I am taking this one day at a time.

Pomegranate experience:

The kids discovered a display of pomegranates in our Walmart and wanted to try one. At that time I was in a hurry and said maybe next time. This weekend we were in our new Fresh Market and the kids told Kellar "mommy wants to buy one" so he goes over to the display while I am in the long line to check out and he freaks out not knowing which to pick. Sunday I was back in our Walmart and the kids and I picked one out. We opened it yesterday at dinner and enjoyed this new fruit for us all. Kellar was still apprehensive, but he too bit into the juicy, red arils. Kellar compared it to a cross between cranberry and corn. So next time you are in your local grocery, why not pick out a pomegranate and enjoy.

Two in One Day

2008-11-09T22:29:00.002-05:00

Wow, who knew blogging can be such fun.

I love chocolate chip cookies. Why does Walmart not carry their brand of chocolate chips any longer?

Back in August, I got together with the college girls and made cookies. Here is the chocolate chip cookie recipe we used (everyone said they were the best the ever tasted)

1 cup butter 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups chocolate chips-I use milk chocolate

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375

In large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in eggs on at a time. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt then stir into sugar mixture. Mix in chips. You know the rest (drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet)

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Eat while warm. Yummy!

It's November

2008-11-09T21:30:00.005-05:00

What a week in our nations history! Many of you may have voted for our President-elect and many of you did not. Now history would have also been made if McCain and Palin won. I do have to admit for a family who is about to bring home our chocolate chip, it is amazing that our nation has an African American president- elect and what that will mean to our son.

On Wednesday morning Kellar and I were out the door by 6:30 am to head to Durham. We arrived at the USCIS office for our 8:30 fingerprinting appointment. After going through security we checked in, filled out more paperwork, and waited along with a couple who are adopting, and several others who were obviously not from the United States. I was called first. The fingerprinting is done on a glass plate connected to a computer. They used windex to wipe my fingers. They do a flat screen with 4 fingers then the thumb. Then they roll each finger, I had to redo several fingers as my print did not pass. On the other hand, Kellar passed with high scores for each finger. Then we filled out a survey and were done.

November is National Adoption Month

Things you can pray for our family:

1. quick paperwork processing

2. upcoming home study visit

3. homeschooling

4. unity in all decisions

5. Kellar's final weeks of teaching for the semester

6. our son in Ethiopia and his birth family

We cut our spending

2008-11-02T13:56:00.002-05:00

Kellar had this wonderful idea to help out our expenses. For the entire month of October we would not buy any extra items (snack food, candy, clothes, haircuts, toys...). In August we spent a total of $684.15 and in September we spent $556.59 on groceries and out to eat adventures. August averages to be $171.03 a person and September's average is $139.15. In October I am proud to say I cut that spending to $502.72 (averages $125.68 a person). Now this was not always easy. I had a few moments that going out would have been easier than fixing my family dinner. We did continue our Friday nights eat out tradition. We went to places where kids eat free on Friday (Moe's and Bar-B-Cutie), when we went to Texas Steakhouse we had kids eat free coupons. The children were on board with us. We are continuing this in November.

Application Information

2008-10-26T21:08:00.001-04:00

What exactly is involved in an adoption application?

All adoptions agencies probably require different forms, documents... I can only specifically speak on what Gladney requires and has taken us a month to complete. First is the 8 page application. This includes general family information (education, jobs, finances). Then there are a few pages of international adoption risks and a couple pages accepting those risks. We needed to notarize a several page agreement with Gladney, Then there is a plan agreement (basically listing those within the agency who would be working with us). There was another page listing our child preference (gender, age, and any health concerns). We are not done yet. We also needed to give directions to our home for the home study. We hope we hear very soon about when this will happen. The North Carolina Gladney social worker lives here in Greenville. She will come to our home and talk to us and our children. She will then compile a very important component to our application and what will eventually go to Ethiopia.

We also sent in copies of our birth certificates (for all 4 of us) as well as a copy of our marriage license. Since I am not employed outside the home Kellar and I designed letterhead for me to use in writing a letter stating I am at home to care for our children. Kellar needed to obtain a letter from his board of directors stating he is employed as a campus minister. To go along with this we sent a copy of his ordination certificate. We are still not done yet.

Each of us needed to see the doctor and the doctor needed to fill out appropriate forms. Now our agency gave us a heads up and suggested for the doctor to also sign and have notarized the form to be included in the dossier (big word sounds like doss e ay). This is the packet of very important documents to go to Ethiopia. For anyone reading this who may one day adopt internationally, patience as a patient is important. In both mine and Kellar's cases the forms have had to be redone (a couple times). I think we may have it correctly now. No wait just last night we read ahead in our dossier information that all documents need to have our name as it appears on our passports. My middle name is missing on my doctor dossier document (oops we may need to redue a third time - they know me by name when I walk in). But I hear the secretary at Kellar's office runs the other way when he walks in.

Well back to our application, we also need to send proof of health insurance. This also has caused some headache as they say they are unable to notarize documents. This needs to not only go to our agency but also in our dossier (therefore it must be notarized). Hopefully we receive this form sometime soon so we can mail it to Gladney.

I also needed to go to our sheriff's office and have a background check done on us and the have it notarized. We are still in the process of gathering 10-12 pictures of our family and home to be sent to our agency and Ethiopia. Lastly we asked 4 very kind people to say kind things about us in reference letters. Now if we lived in Texas we would also have needed to included pet vaccinations and a sketch of our home.

Wow, what a list. Now at the same time we were working on our CIS forms. A basic 2 page application copies of our birth certificates and marriage license. We have received word from then and we will be fingerprinted in Durham, NC on November 5th at 8:30am.

If any of you wish to find out more about Gladney's Ethiopia program please check out the website at adoptionsbygladney.com click on the looking to adopt picture and then the international picture.

Our journey begins

2008-10-17T21:38:00.000-04:00

This year has been amazing. Kellar and I along with Ashleigh and Elijah have begun a journey to our son/ brother in Ethiopia. After having our two beautiful children God has laid on our hearts international adoption. Before our pregnancy with Ashleigh, Kellar and I had talked about one day adopting. FYI: I read a statistic that says only 4% of those who talk about adopting actually pursue it. Well that day has arrived.

Let me take you back to March. God began speaking to Kellar's heart about international adoption. After prayer, Kellar came to me (fully aware I desired to have more children). He put forth the idea of having another child that was not birthed by me as well as being from another country. Wow, my heart leaped. Then we spent some time in prayer.

For our 14th anniversary we went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. For those of you who are unfamiliar, SCC and his wife have adopted three little girls from China and they have also started an adoption ministry. At the concert he expressed his love for his girls in his hit song "Cinderella." We left the concert with God once again tugging our heart strings and felt He was leading us to also adopt from China. After some online research China was not an option for us.

Then while we on our month long sabbatical God showed us 8 different families (many friends we visited) who had adopted, were in the process, or were also praying about it. God showed us a beautiful picture of interracial adoption. When we arrived back in Greenville, I contacted several adoption agencies, asked questions, and prayed. Kellar's heart was still in China and mine had found the beautiful children in Africa. In August, God showed us the need for forever families in Ethiopia.

Please join us in prayer for the people of Ethiopia and our little boy. Our little boy has already been born as we have requested a boy between the ages of 24-40 months old.