Gimp

OK, this is humbling. My foot started hurting yesterday and sometimes that happens if I wear "cute" shoes instead of "good" shoes for a while. No biggie. But I was awoken at 5 this morning by excruciating pain. Pain so bad it ranks up there with my dry socketed wisdom teeth. Yeah. That kind of unrelenting pain. (Now would be a good time to stop reading and pray for me, if you don't mind.)

I went to the clinic and was diagnosed with gout. Yeah, I thought only "older" people got that. I'm gimpy. I called Marshall and apologized for not believing how much pain he was in several months ago when the same thing happened to him.

I had to cancel my whole day. I meet with some ladies every Tuesday for a discipleship Bible study. I hated to cancel that. And Bible study tonight...I look forward to that and all of my homework was done and I was ready to discuss!! And I cancelled a hair appointment. You KNOW I must be in pain to cancel a root job! Sweet friends have taken care of me all day long. Anya came over to tell me she would walk Sophie the next few days. Jeannette didn't get my message about our discipleship group being cancelled, so she came over and went and got me some bottled water. She came back later with a box of chocolates and a Get Well card signed by the group. Priceless. Lisa came over and got my mind off of the pain. We talked baby stuff. She's lovely. My friend Christy says these are labor pains. I say, bring on the epidural, like NOW.

Thank You Lord for these friends that care so much about me.

I just feel completely fragile right now and helpless, but totally taken care of. Now would be a good time to pray again. :) I'm going to try to nap again now.

I can't believe I have gout. Yuck!

The Accidental Adoption

Those of you adopting or have adopted will totally appreciate this. The rest of you have probably heard me talk about adoption so much, you'll get a chuckle too. If this type of thing happened, there would not be 143 orphans in the world. I've read this a million times and it still makes me giggle. Sit back and enjoy!

Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.

What is it?

Well, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it. I went to the mailbox today and... well, we got a 171-H.

A what?!? A 171-H? As in, we're going to have a(nother) baby?!?

It looks that way.

But how? We've been so careful! I put away all the blank I-600A forms. Didn't you hide our homestudy update?

Of course I did, but don't forget, there was that one night...

What night? (pauses) Ohhh, that night, But it was only once. We were just messing around. I didn't print clearly. I didn't even use ink! (pauses again) But it was kind of fun. (giggles).

It was, wasn't it? I'll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints. So now we've got our 171-H, eh? But that doesn't always mean you'll adopt, does it? I mean, shouldn't you see the agency or something, make sure everything's okay?

I already did.

And?

I'm five documents along.

Five documents! And they're all notarized, certified and authenticated okay?

Just great. There was one small scare when the agency couldn't see the Notary's middle initial but it showed up just fine under the magnifying glass.

Thank God.

And you, honey? Are you feeling okay?

I'm feeling fine. As long as I know you're happy about this.

Happy? I'm thrilled! It's always a shock at first when something like this happens, but of course I'm happy.

Author Unknown

God cares about the details

First, let me say thanks for voting on the name poll. It has been so fun to watch the votes come in. Keep 'em coming!

The other day I was praying. It sounds kind of silly, but I prayed very specifically for two things. Praise God, we have everything we need. Cutest baby in the whole world could come home today and we'd just need to run to the store to grab some diapers and bottles. The Lord has provided in abundance. So really we're down to the small stuff. I prayed that we would find a changing table (not a necessity) and a rocking chair so I can rock my baby to sleep.

The other day I went to the Fairkauf. Those of you around us probably know what that is, but others don't. It's best described as like a German Goodwill. It was introduced to me as the Dead Man's Store because a lot of people donate their estates. It is charity and it is fun! I walked in the front door and there were a lot of folks in the entrance so I took a left through the "rooms" they have set up with furniture. A lot of it was familiar, as I'm a regular. I enjoyed walking slowly, touching and keeping my eye open for two specific things. I wound my way through and was walking back toward the entrance. And there she was. A dark, cherry wood finish. A good old fashioned rockin' chair. I couldn't believe it! (Why couldn't you believe it, Jill? You asked Him for it!) I removed the stuffed frog that was occupying it and sat and rocked. And rocked. And rocked until the sales guy approached me because I looked weird and sentimental I guess. I bought that rocker and brought it home for some TLC. The only thing missing is that precious baby, but I have confidence that he will be rocking with me soon.

My point to this story is that our God cares about the details. He knows the number of hairs on our heads and He knew that at month 5 of waiting, I just needed to know He remembered. My friends, He does remember. And I think He likes to show us, if we'll just open our eyes.

Many blessings to you this Sunday. Maybe I'll go rock for a while and think about our babe.

Name Poll

**Edited to add: This is SO much fun! Thanks for participating!!**

What should we name the baby? At first we called him Noah, but ultimately decided that we would know when we saw his sweet face and learned his Ethiopian name.

But just for fun, there is a poll set on the right hand side of the page. You have a week to choose one of the names we've listed.

Noah - "rest, comfort"
Jude - "author of epistle of Jude"
Abram - "high father"
Samuel - "name of God" or "God has heard"
Silas - "NT missionary with Paul"
Micah - "OT minor prophet"

Come on! It'll be fun...the more the merrier.

Feel free to leave a comment about your choice or if you have another spectacular name that I haven't included.

18, 19, 20, 21....

weeks waiting. What happened to 18, 19 and 20? Well, it's my blog and I can change the way I count our weeks if I want to. ;)

After I started the weekly count, I found out that we can really say we are "officially waiting" when our dossier is received by our agency and deemed "good to go". Before I was counting by when our dossier was mailed to Ethiopia. I just decided tonight that I would change the way we counted the wait. Fast forward 3 weeks....viola, we've been waiting 21 weeks to.day.

It's fun to have your own blog.

In other news, five families are in ET right now picking up their children. It has been so fun to watch. In pictures I spotted Bebi, one of our translators on the missions trip, and Sammy the best driver in all of Ethiopia. Check out the Carpenters and the Davids. They are the parents of some beautiful children!

The transition home looks wonderful. It's comforting to know that once our son is referred to us he will be in great care there. Sounds like the nannies love the kids just like their own. Can't wait to meet them. Can't wait until our boy is there.

We're still waiting to hear about when we're expected at our next duty station. And we still feel like our referral is coming soon. Word is the next batch is in February. That's not far away. Praying!!

Please Pray

There is a family that needs your prayers. A seminary friend let us know about a man named Andrew. He and his wife have a 4 year old son adopted from ET. Andrew was in ET picking up their new 5 month old baby. Yesterday evening his wife and 4 yr old son were in a car wreck. Their son is fine, but his wife was killed. Andrew did not know this as he was literally on the plane, flying home with their new baby.

I don't know this family, but my heart is broken and my stomach hurts. We have a Sovereign God. I just can't sort this out.

Please pray for Andrew and their children. These kids have already lost so much in their lives. I can't imagine what he must be feeling. I was telling Marshall earlier that I know somehow the Lord can be glorified in even this. We just sometimes assume that people who are serving Him with all of their hearts, minds, and souls, will be "ok". And I know I'm thinking in the flesh, as we should be more eternity focused. I can't help but be broken hearted for this family. Please pray.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Are you bummed out because you think you missed out on an Ethiopia Adoption tee shirt? Well, turn that frown upside down. We have some extras for sale:

Child:
small (1),
medium (1),
xl (1)

Womens:
medium (1),
large (1)

Mens/Unisex:
large (1),
xl (1)

Leave me a comment or email at marshallandjill@hotmail.com to order.

Minimum donation $20 per shirt (Paypal on the right hand side of screen is easiest). If you're new and would like to see a picture, see this post and this post.

*Edited to reflect current shirts available. :)