Next Steps!

We are so thankful for all of the love and support of everyone on our journey to bring home our little girl!  So many people are asking what comes next, so I thought I would pass along the next steps to you here.

In Ethiopia, they are translating our documents and information and combining it with the information of our little girl to make one file. It will be submitted it to the courts to get a court date.  The courts have been closed for the last two months because of rainy season.  They close every year for August and September.  They just reopened TODAY!!!  We are hoping to hear about our scheduled court date SOON! :)

After we pass court, we will be submitted to the US Embassy.  Our Embassy appointment is the final step.  We will take one trip for about a week for the court date, and then usually about 2 months later, we will return to Ethiopia for another week (Embassy).  On that trip, we can bring our little girl home.

We are hoping to travel sometime in December for our first trip (court), and then bring her home in February or March.  One thing that our social worker was very clear on was that this court/Embassy process is VERY unpredictable. You just never know what is going to happen with the court system, extra paperwork or research that they might require, etc.  We are praying for no bumps in the road!

So...prayer requests:

• Our little girl's safety, health, and adjustment in a different place.  I can't even imagine the things that she is thinking/feeling right now.  I am sure she is so confused.  There will be so much that she has to grieve:  the loss of her family, friends, culture... all things known to her.  Please just pray that God will comfort her little heart as only He can!
• Pray for our family to be prepared for this change...for wisdom for us in parenting each one of our kids and preparing their hearts for their little sister!  They are so excited!
• Pray for us to pass court quickly and without any problems.
• Finances!  We are hoping to hear back this week from a grant we applied for to help with all of the travel costs.  It is a matching grant, and we are going to have an art sale to raise money for it!  more to come on that later...

Thanks for praying for us!!!

THE CALL!!!!!

The amazing call that changed everything!  Adoption can be compared to pregnancy in some different ways...everyone likes to joke that people are "paper pregnant" when they are working on their adoption paperwork.  Well, the night we got THE CALL!!!  can be compared to looking at our positive pregnancy test.  Everything changes.  But, you don't even know what will change!  You don't know what is in store, but you could not be more excited!  You just jump around the room in amazement!

September 21, 2011.  Just before 5:00 pm.  Brian came home a little early because he was wanting to spend time with us as he had to go back to work that night after the kids went to bed.

(sidenote:  Earlier that morning, I had emailed our case worker ("B") with our agency, AGCI, to see of we could extend our age parameters to 0-28 months so that we wouldn't have to redo our homestudy (again!!) as Eliana got older.  Our agency typically stays in birth order, and the adopted child must be 10 months younger than your youngest child...essentially, however a birth could happen "naturally" in your family is how they get their parameters.  They feel that all of the children adjust better that way. )


So, I was bathing the girls and Brian came upstairs and said "B" called on your phone.  Then she called on my phone.  She needs to talk to us tonight.  I was completely NOT thinking our referral...at first I didn't even know he was talking about our case worker!!  Then, he clarified..."B" from All God's Children...

Then, I knew!!!  I started crying and saying, "THIS IS IT!!!!  THIS IS IT!!!!  IT IS OUR REFERRAL!!!!!!"  Brian wasn't so sure.  He told me to not freak out, that she probably was just responding to my email.  I was insistent!  I said, " Brian!  She would NEVER call on YOUR phone for that!!  I know this is it!!!"  He said, " Well, call her!"

She picked up the phone right away and said that she got my email (I am calmly saying, "Oh, yes...good..." And then!  She said, "But I REALLY want to talk to you about a LITTLE GIRL!!!!"  Oh, melt my heart!  I couldn't wait to hear every detail!  We both got on the phone and she went through all of the details that she knew of.  We put on a movie for the kids to distract them, and we asked our case worker every question we could think of!  She really wanted us to talk through her age (she is 28 months), as she is older than they originally wanted our parameters to be, and get back with her the next day.

We already knew we wanted to move forward!  I think I asked Brian 500 times that night, "Oh my goodness, what are you feeling right now!?!"  We sat down to eat about 20 minutes after we got off the phone.  We wanted to all look at her pictures together as a family (Our case worker went over all of her info, but then she puts it all together on an email with her pictures and sends it when you get off the phone.  They know we wouldn't hear a word she was saying if we could stare at her beautiful pictures the whole time!).  The kids are so excited and they talk about her all the time.  This morning Olivia made up a song about how we are "going to the airport to pick up _(my little sister!)__" They pray for her all the time, showed their classes her picture, and we talk about what she is doing at whatever time of day it is!

So, we pull up that email with her pictures...oh, melt my heart...we look through the first few, and then there is one that looks like she is looking in our eyes, ready for us to bring her to her forever home!  I still think about that moment and tears just well up in my eyes.  Our daughter.  She is amazing, and I don't even know her yet.

There are so many "God details" in all of it...

• her name and what it means and means to us (We can't share her name or her picture until she is legally ours...sorry!!  But if you see us, stop us and ask and we will show you in person!  We can't put anything on the internet, though.) 
• the age parameters and that I had JUST asked for "up to 28 months" that morning. She is 28 months.  Our case worker said, " I just had to laugh when I read that email!" 
• The fact that Brian is a twin and has  experience with twins and how to encourage and give them separate identities (Because of Eliana's age compared to our newest little girl, they call that "artificial twinning").  
• A couple of weeks after we decided to move forward in pursuing adoption (2009), she was born!
• some significant dates in her life and what we were doing at the time

Well, the next day we had planned to go to Nashville (just Brian and I) to go to a conference that ShowHope was doing with Dr. Karyn Purvis.  It was incredible.  I admire her so much, and I love all of her research, studies, books, videos, and conferences!  She has researched and speaks/teaches on parenting children who "come from hard places."  Another post for another day, but it is incredible information.

So, we headed off for what Brian refers to as "The Amazing Race," adoption edition in Nashville!  We had some time-sensitive phone calls to make and reports to write up on our daughter and her transition to our family.  The first part of the day, we were in and out of the conference taking phone calls and heading to office stores to print, fax, etc!  It was hilarious looking back!

It was a sweet time filled with so much excitement! We canNOT wait to meet our sweet girl! Just before I started writing this post, I looked back over a little bit of our adoption journey.  Trusting in God's perfect will and sovereignty, and sifting through all of the unknowns.  Assuming we would get a referral right away, and wondering why we didn't.  I know that God already knew this little girl would be a Crenshaw.  He has orchestrated every step of her life and ours.  Hard times and good times...He knew they would all happen.  Any other time we would have gotten a referral, it wouldn't be HER.  I can't wait to let all of you meet her!!

Since I can't show yall a picture of her, I will leave you with one from last week.  We went to the beach, and it was a sweet time to get away as a family (my parents got to come, too!), have fun, relax a bit after a crazy couple of weeks, and connect!  But, we missed her so much. So, I will leave you with this:

I will post all of the "next steps" and prayer requests soon!!

Summer

The rest of our summer was fun-filled!!

I got to go to camp with the students at our church for the first time!!  I have never gotten to go because of the ages of our kiddos, but we decided that with another Crenshaw coming soon (hopefully!), this was the summer to go!  It was God's sweet sovereignty because when we first started leading the youth group, the now 12th graders were then 7th graders.  These 7th grade girls were in my Bible study before I had more babies and stopped leading a group, so I got to experience their last camp as a high schooler.  It was really neat to see how the Lord has grown them.  They are amazing young women!!

Here are some camp pics:

Our precious room:

Here are the girls:

And the guys:

There were so many really powerful moments that week where God moved in the students' and leaders' hearts.  Towards the end of the week, our incredible camp pastor, Ricky Jenkins, talked about "dreams," and how we all have God-given dreams and to not lose sight of those things.  He talked about the older we get, our dreams go from a passionate "God use me to........" to "it would be nice if God would...." He asked Brian and I to share some dreams that God has placed on our hearts.  We shared about adoption and what God has done to teach us more about Himself and those in need.  We shared about how we would love to see more orphans placed in their "forever families."  Afterwards, we were presented with over $400 for our adoption raised by the students and staff that week.  This was so powerful...so amazing to me. I was "ugly crying" knowing that this group of believers (who did not bring "extra" money to camp!!!) rallied together and gave to our family.  I am still so humbled and so honored and so blessed.  Their generosity is amazing to me.  They are a huge part in bringing this little one home.
Moving on, now that I am ugly crying again just thinking about it...

So, while we were at camp, our kiddos were back home with Nana and Pa, and by the looks on their faces, I am sure you can see just how much they were missing us...

Treat for the day...BombPops!!

Making homemade ice cream!

My parents are so thoughtful...they even brought them to go serve others by cutting down fallen limbs from a storm!

Nana taught her to tie her shoes!!  YAY!!!!

Going to see Winnie the Pooh!

Yummy breakfast treat:  Donuts!

Bowling!

We are so blessed to have them in such great, loving, hands!! :)

We also got to spend some quality time with some of the Knoxville Crenshaw cousins!  Here they are at the sprinkler park together:

Mimi and Pops came in so everyone could be together!  Here they are with all of the grandkids (minus Luke :(   ):

A definite low-light from my summer...my dear friend Christy moved away.  Definitely excited about what God is doing in their life and very sad to see them move away. Love you, Christy, and I am so thankful for you!

We got to hang out with this litttle guy for a weekend while his parents were away:

We kept thinking all weekend that he could be the same age as the newest Crenshaw!  It was fun to watch the kids play "big brother/sister!"

One more thing we did this summer:  

PAPERWORK!!  Our home study had to be updated, so we started the paper chase again.  I am so glad to have that behind us again.  Maybe we won't have to update it again before we go to Ethiopia!!  

Praying, praying for that call to come SOON! 

Birthday season!

I am just so ecstatic that school is out!  Along with that comes birthday season at our house!  We have many birthdays back to back.

Today we celebrated our precious Olivia.  Oh, what joy she brings to our family!  She  is FULL of life, joy, emotions, and spunk!  I love it!  She reminds me to not be so serious in life.  She reminds me to take a little breath and lay down for "just one more song..." or "one more back-rub..." or "one more prayer..." I am so thankful to the Lord for giving us such a healthy, happy girl.

She loves "Tangled," so we had a "Tangled" birthday party today to celebrate her turning five!

Here are some pictures:



Here is the cake table:

Here is pin the hair on Rapunzel:

The birthday girl coloring one of the coloring sheets:

A mini-Rapunzel!  Liv didn't want to wear her dress for the party, so her little sis GLADLY wore it!

We were making Pascal (the chameleon from the movie) party blowers:

I loved getting to celebrate Olivia with one of her favorite things.  It makes me want to grasp with all of my heart how God celebrates me.  He made me.  He loves me.  He knows my favorite things, too... I love that.

Birthday Video

I was going through old videos and pictures and I thought this was so cute!  When we celebrated Austin's birthday at Mema's house in Newbern with the Crenshaw side of the family, Mimi got some trick candles!  It was too funny!  Sweet Austin was such a great sport!

My SEVEN year old!!

A couple of weeks ago, we got to celebrate this guy turning seven!:

What a cutie!

I am so thankful for so much about him, but one of the things I love the most is his tender heart.  God has given him compassion for others and a sensitive spirit for Him.  He brings such joy to our family!

The apple not falling far from the tree, he wanted a "painting party!"  (I am not the artist...my sweet hubby is!  More on that later...)

It was so much fun!  He had his cousins there and his buddies from school, and each one got to paint a canvas to bring home as their party favor.  They did a great job!

Here is his cake:

Surrounding the cake are little cake balls ("paint balls!")  It made a LOT, so I put all the extras in little paint cans:

They were yummy!

Here are the kiddos painting away:

And, Eliana looking at all of the finished products:

It was a great time of celebrating our little guy!  God has blessed us so much through him!

God is so faithful!

Of course the title of this is a given...as believers in Christ, we all know this to be true.  But, we all experience it in different ways and the "freshness" of this truth in different depths.

My heart is FILLED with thankfulness!  I don't know how to put it all into words, but I truly got to experience a miracle last weekend.  We had a yard sale that we were preparing for for a long time to raise money for our adoption. We had a TON of people donate a TON of things for it!  We got to see the generosity of the Lord through the body of Christ in a tangible way.  People not only donated their things, but their time and service to help us sort, gather, bake, set up, organize, sell, and clean up!

There were three families in this thing together, and we all were blown away by what God did!

To recap:

• Thursday was set up day!  We had two storage units FILLED, plus things at each of our houses and a storage place at an office!  We rented a UHaul and got it all there (after almost 12 hrs of moving!).
• We had an unbelievable location!  We have some friends that live at a very busy intersection and they let us use their yard!  How generous!  Their whole house/yard were taken over!
• We were not going to sell anything on Thursday...just spend the day organizing and setting up.  BUT...the Lord had other plans!  People saw things coming and they started stopping and buying!  At the end of the day, we had raised $3,000!!!!!!  WHAT?!?  We didn't even remember anything that sold!  We looked out into the yard and it was still FULL!!!!
• Friday morning came bright and early!  It rained through the night, so everything was wet.  We were sad, but people kept coming and not one person even mentioned that things were wet or complained! WHAT??!?
• My sweet friend Kristin (who was one of the families doing the yard sale with us) said that God used the rain to remind her that it is all about what HE was going to do with this...not about our (wet) stuff, the weather, or anything else.  Amen!
• At the end of Friday, I think that we had a total of around $8,000!!
• Saturday brought some more rain around lunchtime.  We covered everything up and hoped that it would stop soon.  People continued to come and were shopping under the plastic covers.  WHAT??!?
• At the end of Saturday, we were overwhelmed with emotion, exhausted, and SO VERY THANKFUL for what God had done.  It felt like we were in the New Testament but instead of fish and loaves, we were seeing "stuff" and "money" just multiply.  It was amazing.  Truly.
• A sweet Ethiopian man came!!!  He told us pieces about the Ethiopian community here in Memphis, and even the Ethiopian church that he goes to!  I can't wait to meet more people from the country our child is from.  What a cool way to keep parts of their heritage!
• God used this yard sale to provide for other people in need, too, whether it was a flood victim or a family in need of a carseat, or an encouraging word.  It was really sweet to watch.
• In all, the total from the yard sale was $11,200.  Again...WHAT??!?  Who raises over $11,000 at a yard sale?!?  Thank you, Jesus!  And...we still had stuff to help two other families get started on gathering for their yard sale next month to raise money for their adoptions!  And, when I say stuff, I mean truckloads!
• My sweet friend Wendy (also one of the families doing the yard sale!) sent us an email the week before saying to pray, pray, pray...the theme: beauty from ashes.  Wow...did God ever bring beauty from ashes!  People donating what they thought was their "junk," to raise SERIOUS funds to bring kiddos home to their forever families.  THAT is beauty!  

I can't say how thankful we are for the part that SO MANY people played in this!  From designing fliers to donating stuff to working with us that weekend to (most importantly) pray for God to show Himself faithful in raising a huge sum for us. So...THANK YOU!!

Here is a picture of us at the end of Saturday....with God's provision!