Thursday, March 26, 2009

Another day of waiting







It's official. Our homestudy has been approved! Sounds like an awesome thing but it really means a few more days of waiting for the final papers to be distributed. Every step takes a few days and all of those days are adding up to months of time. We are just ready to start the real waiting. Ha! Ha! That sounds so silly but it's true. Some days I don't think much about the adoption and other days I obssess over it. Today was a little more obssessive than others. I was reading a blog and couldn't stop staring at the gate of our orphanage. The gates are painted red and distinquish Hannah's Hope from the other buildings on the dirt roads of Eithiopia. One day God will lead us to those gates to get our daughter! Here is a link to the blog. It was a great look into HH and Eithiopia in general. http://growingupgollotte.blogspot.com/
Some of you that know Noah very well understand how much he likes to drum. He is on his second set of drums and always loosing sticks. This particular day he felt no need for pants but insisted on wearing his cowboy boots. Sounds like a true rocker. A few days later I was cleaning out my car in the garage when I hear him say, "I'm doing it!" In typical mom fashion I said, "Good job!" but had no idea what it was he was doing. When I finally pulled my head out of the car I realized that he had learned to peddle his tricycle. This is a big deal!! A new stage in life. This summer we are planning on taking Sean's training wheels off. As always Sean resist change. Like his daddy he has to think long and hard about things. He will come around to the idea after some pushing from his parents. Seems we are always pushing him to do new things. However, we are not usually literally pushing. I wonder if we are in good enough shape to run beside a bicycle. We shall see.






Friday, March 13, 2009

Busy Week


I was reading another blog today and found this comment. I couldn't have described my feelings about adopting better than this way. My standard answer to the question "why are you adopting?" is the same as the one given here and I too felt that adoption was something people with better qualifications did but that I wasn't enough to be one of those people.

"Why are you adopting?"
Taken from ausbrooksfamily.blogspot.com

This is a common question for us. We were told when we first started this process we should be ready with an answer, one that was positive towards our adopted child. My answer is usually, “That’s just what God called us to do.” Seems pretty vague, but it’s true.But how do we know that? Josh and I both clearly felt God’s voice on this. We were recently looking at high school pictures of us, and Josh asked if I ever would have thought back then that we would be adopting our third child from Ethiopia, and I said its more than I could have hoped. I always thought adoption was so special, but I thought it was something other people did, people with more resources, more faith, more…something. This thinking prevents many parents from pursuing adoption, but believe me, if we can do it, so can you!

Now for an update on the adoption. We got the review of our home study back. Most of the changes were minor with just a few wording problems. The biggest annoyance was that we needed to have Ohio and Kentucky child abuse checks. We had one of these checks done for Indiana but because we have been here more than five years they did not think that we would have need one for the other states. They were wrong! Anyway this means that we will be waiting for another week or so for the Kentucky check to come back. Luckily the Ohio one was faxed and came back the same day. Just another lesson in patience.

We have had an exciting week at our house. Some friends of ours from church had their third child this week. While they were in the hospital we kept the other two kids. Brianna is four and Alex is two. So, I was a mother of four children under 6 years old. It wasn't as crazy as it sounds and of course without Chris and Mom watching them during the day we couldn't have done it. Really our children were very well entertained. -Sarah

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Homestudy Review


I don't have a whole lot to say today but I wanted to give a short update on our progress. We are waiting for the review of our home study to be complete. That involves the approval of several people so it is taking a few weeks to finish. The home study agency sent us a copy to approve. Everything sounded great except about half-way through they referred to us as "Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell." I guess the Mitchells were in line before us to have their home study written up. It kind of makes you wonder how well these things are read. I guess after four people read them all of the mistakes will be caught. After this stage we send in another set of paperwork which will hopefully get us on the official list. I keep hearing about this list but have begun to wonder if it actually exist. Ha! Ha! Nothing too exciting but the weather has been beautiful. The boys and I played outside yesterday and went to the park for the first time. It was so nice to go outside without freezing. Nothing like that first day when you can get outside and soak up some sunshine. God Bless you.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Trip to Guatamala











Hey guys! This is my first post on the site and I'm a little nervous. I just got back from the mission trip in Guatamala. We saw over 1000 patients in four days and had the hand of God over us the entire time. I took a journal and documented each days events, so at our next get together I can share with you. I have included a few pictures from the trip for you to see. The country is beautiful and so are the people. The kids are amazing!! For those waiting for the adoption process to open in Guatamala, the time is well worth it. There is such a need to help these people. They lack a lot of things that we take for granted but I learned so much about love from them. When love is all you have, it tends to grow very strong. I'm now more than ever ready to get my daughter. God has called us to this task and He will see us thru in His perfect time. We are in the review stage now and soon will officialy be on "THE LIST."




Love you all




Chris, Sarah, Sean and Noah Steward