Will you pray with me?

There is a very sweet family in our agency that needs our prayers. Little Abby Riggs who was adopted from Guatemala is 3 years old and was diagnosed with cancer. Her little body is having a hard time with the chemo and so I thought I would share her precious story with you so you could join me in praying for her and her family.

Waiting List Coming Soon!

We are so excited! I think that I will be sending our dossier papers off either Tuesday or Wednesday!! I can't believe it. We also got our Favorable Determination Letter from the USCIS in the mail yesterday! That is a major piece of paper from the government that we have been waiting for so now things are really going to start moving along. I am not sure what exactly all comes next but I should find out tomorrow and let you know! Thank you to everyone who has helped us, we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

SHOPPING!

Ok I did a little online shopping since I saved some extra cash this month.... Check out the fun things I bought!



I got this little onsie with the radio and butterflies for our little friend who is going to be 1 on Saturday! It's from Tiny Rockstar and the proceeds go to orphan care!



Of course Jackson needed one too so he got this t-shirt with drums on it and says Pacemaker:)




Then I also got one of these cool AHOPE bracelets that honors a child currently living with HIV at the AHOPE orphanage in Ethiopia. The money provides food for the kids. My bracelet has the name Behailu on it and we will be praying for this little sweetie..... You can get one of your own by going here.

I am still waiting for two AHOPE t-shirts to come in the mail. Jackson got a black one and I got a blue one.



So Jackson got some new clothes this week (and mommy got a bracelet:) which he was seriously in need of and all the proceeds went to kids that need it.....How cool is that? It's cool.

pretty funny....

Just thought I would let you guys know that I just had to borrow 2 dollars from the teenage babysitter....and I didn't pay even pay her. Yeah, I am feeling pretty good about myself.


Don't worry though, I just left my wallet in Paul's car.... Just feeling a little embarrassed:)

Fingerprinting!

Ok so now that we got the awkwardness out of the way (see below post, or not...), I have some exciting news! We got permission (I guess that's what it is) to go get out fingerprints done for the USCIS! I have been stalking the mailman as of late, thinking that they must have lost our file or something but alas it has come! So hopefully we will be able to do that tomorrow and I can mark that off my list.

On the home front, we started school last week. I teach preschool and Jackson goes to MDO, so he is just down the hall. We are pretty tired around here but should adjust to the new routine shortly..... (this is more me than Jackson, Yep I'm taking an afternoon nap with him!)

A Huge Blessing!

Well, as many of you know our dossier is completely done, mocking me from my dining room table.....Yep it mocks. We have been saving and combing through our finances since last January and things have been a little rough the last few months. We both have been praying that God would come through like he has with every other hurdle and well, lets just say he hears our prayers!

We got a matching grant of $3,000!! Can you believe it? I really can't. So what does this mean? Well, it means over the next few days I will be sending out support letters to friends and family humbly asking for their support in this journey......and I do mean humbly. This is a really hard thing for us to ask for but we have been so blessed by the people who have come beside us already and we know God is going to use this for his glory. We have to raise all of our support and LifeSong will be matching dollar for dollar that comes in up to 3,000. But we also have a deadline of November 15, which is scary.....I don't like deadlines:)

Let me also say that we could not be more thankful and extremely grateful for the Tapestry Adoption Ministry and Irving Bible Church. They have been such a strong support system for us and we have really enjoyed making new friends that we can share this journey with. We are so happy that God lead my google searching:) to Tapestry and we actually had the nerves to go visit! We are also thankful that IBC and Tapestry are so committed to orphan care and adoptive families and their awesome partnership with LifeSong.

So where does that leave you? Well, faithful readers, you know our story. You know our ups and downs in this process and a lot of you really know us. If you feel lead to support us in this adoption, then there are two main ways. First and most importantly by prayer. We really feel that this adoption should be bathed in prayer by as many people as possible. We have brought every step of this to God in asking that his will be done and that he will ultimately be glorified. We ask that you join us in praying that God will continue to meet each obstacle with blessings, that his hand be on the entire process. Secondly, if you feel that you would like to support us financially then you can send a check to:

LifeSong
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St
Gridley, IL 61744


Please write "Aarseth Adoption" in the memo line.

Thank you for your faithfulness in keeping up with our journey and for your thoughts and prayers.

Off to write a letter:)

important disclaimer:

In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My hubby turns 28 today! We just wanted to say happy birthday and we love you!

Tom's Blog

Hey, I just wanted to direct you over to Tom Davis' Blog because some great conversations are going on about adoption and orphan care over the last few days.....be sure to check the comments as well.

Also I have really awesome news but not quite ready to share it with you just yet. So this is a teaser......more to come in the next few days:)

Another Thought Provoking Article

I wanted to share with you this article that Tom Davis posted on his blog about Ethiopian Adoptions from New America Media....... Tell me your thoughts:) Thanks. I'll post my thoughts a little later b/c I'm swamped at the moment.

more on Focus on the Family and SCC

More interviews will be popping up with Steven Curtis Chapman and Dr. Dobson over the next few days. To hear them click here then click on Daily Broadcast and today's interview is called The God of All Comfort Part 1. Please keep this precious family in your prayers.

Focus on the Family and Steven Curtis Chapman

Here is an awesome interview with Dr. Dobson about adoption and Shaohannah's Hope. (Click on Daily Broadcast) Next week sometime they will interview the Chapman's about their recent loss. Check it out to see how this family has glorified God.

Still waiting on the funds for the dossier....................................

Approved!

Ok I just checked my email and our homestudy has been approved! Yay! Praise the Lord! This blog must have magical powers:) So the only thing we need now is money:) haha. I know God will come through on this we just have to be a little patient. yippee, we are one more step closer.

waiting

That's the name of the game in adoption land. Well it seems we are STILL waiting for our homestudy to be approved by AGCI so hopefully that will happen soon. (This is in no way AGCI's fault, more a miscommunication on our social worker's). We are also still waiting on the money to send in our dossier but God is definitely moving on this one...Hopefully I will be able to tell you about that soon.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support for our extended family, things are looking up. Just taking things one day at a time. You are all in my thoughts daily as we wait to bring home our kiddos.

Prayer Needed

If you have time could you pray for our family this week? We have had a lot of issues to deal with that I can't really disclose and also the death of my step-grandmother. It has been a stressful week and on top of that our dossier papers are all ready but we are waiting for the money to send in our payment with it. I know everything will work out but things are pretty crazy right now:)

Shameless Plug

Tonight is Tapestry night!!! Tapestry is an adoption ministry that we are a part of through Irving Bible Church and I can not tell you how much I love it! They have all sorts of get-togethers and seminars and such for every part of the adoption and foster care process (play-groups, adult adoptees groups, emergency closet for foster families, etc.). We have only attended the Waiting Families Group but I have heard so many good things about this ministry so I decided to put in this shameless plug post.

I encourage you if you are adopting to find a support group. We don't attend Irving Bible Church so I was a little intimated at first. Our friends Daniel and Whitney (I know I talk too much about them!) have an adoption ministry at their church in Illinois so I decided to google and find one here in Dallas. We were desperate to figure out what agency to use and find other people in the same place as us and Tapestry has really come through! We also meet with a yahoo group for Dallas area Ethiopian Adoptive Families which is so fun, too. Search Ethiopia babies in yahoo groups if you live in Dallas.

So all this is to say if your feeling a little lost out there, find a real live support group or adoption ministry to be apart of..... it makes the waiting feel a little easier. Don't get me wrong, I love all of you supportive bloggers, but sometimes you just need a face to face conversation:)

PS. we have a new water heater! now if only the carpet would dry.....