I Love Wendy's!!!

Seriously, Wendy's has long been my favorite fast food stop.....who doesn't love a Frosty?

But even more, I love that Wendys' Dave Thomas Foundation is such an advocate for adoption.

Take a minute...actually, take two and a half minutes and see six lives forever changed because someone said "yes".

(But, first, scroll to the bottom and pause my music.)

Let Us See You In Our Shirt

Okay, friends, I received an email from a Mom whose entire family of 6 now wears our US shirt and I was thinking that it would be so fun to see who's wearing our shirts.

Like this little guy (my cousin's son, Allen)...what a cutie!

So....if you're sporting one of our "Why Adopt?" tees; whether you are someone that we know or someone that we do not......would you email me a picture (movedtomove@gmail.com) of yourself wearing our tee?

Thanks!

Immigration Approval - check!

As you recall, several weeks ago, Jeff, Jordan and I reported to our local USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Services) office to be fingerprinted.  This was done in conjunction with the I600A form that we had filed once our home study was complete.

I really hadn't thought much about those fingerprints since the day that we did them but, on Saturday, we received in the mail, the approval from USCIS, also known as our I-171H.

What this means is that the USCIS / Department of Homeland Security has checked us out and approved our family to bring an orphan into the United States.

When I emailed our caseworker to ask what, if anything, needed to be done (aside from sending her a copy....which she will, in turn, forward to Ethiopia to be matched with our paperwork) she said, "nope, you've been approved".  And then she went on to say that we should/could be working on our vaccinations for the upcoming trip(s)!

I don't know if we've EVER been more excited to get shots.  (Actually, I've already had mine since I traveled to ET last year....but I'm really excited for everyone else to get theirs.)

Up Close and Personal

Edited to add:  I like to keep this post "handy" for anyone considering our shirts as the images in this post can be magnified by clicking on them, whereas, the images in the sidebar can not.  SO, this is not a new post; just one I've moved to the forefront for the ease of those considering our shirts.

If you stopped by to do a little shopping, our t-shirts make a great gift for anyone who has a heart for adoption. The shirts are available with the back image of Africa, Asia and/or the United States. The shirt front is the same for all three regions and say, "Why Adopt?" and "For The Bible Tells Me So". Within the shape of the designated regions are specific verses that God used as we journeyed toward the decision to adopt.

The verses are as follows:

• I will not leave you as orphans, I will come for you
• Love the Lord with all your soul, strength, mind and your neighbor as yourself
• Serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not people
• Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father: visit orphans and widows in their affliction and keep oneself unstained from the world
• Once our eyes are opened, we cannot pretend that we don't know what to do. God who weaghs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know and holds us responsible to act
• Truly I say to you as you did it to the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.
• For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, as sons, "Abba, Father"
• And whoever welcomes a little child in my name welcomes me.

To order yours, simply click the corresponding (Africa, Asia or US) PayPal link on the left hand side of our blog -OR- email us at movedtomove@gmail.com to arrange payment in another manner.

Thank you for supporting our adoption -AND- for wearing our shirt to bring awareness....wearing the shirt almost always brings about an opportunity to share; a divine appointment, if you will.

We Will Never Be The Same

In the past years, as God has been hard at work on our hearts, I have seen many homecoming-type adoption videos.  They are ALL precious but there are some that grab me more than others.

This one has me in tears.  Tears of thankfulness that God is breaking our hearts for what breaks His.

No, we won't.  EVER be the same.

Go over HERE to take a look.  (Sorry, for some reason, blogger isn't allowing me to embed the video

Moving On Up

On the wait list, that is.

It looks like discussions and guesses regarding where we'll land on our agency's wait list each month will be the topic of many discussions.  I'm going to try hard not to wish our live's away waiting for the monthly update.

As Jeff and I were driving to Indianapolis on Friday, we were discussing this very thing.  Jeff posed the question to me, "if the over/under was 20, would you go for OVER or UNDER".  (Remember, we were 29 in January).

I never knew that I was a pessimist.  I think "realist" is a better term but I quickly went for the OVER.  After some brewing over in his head, Jeff agreed with me.  (Not before blaming me for emptying his half-full cup:).

Seriously, within 5-10 minutes of having this discussion, I glanced at my phone to see that I had a "Wait List Update" email.

Baby steps, people.

We are:

Would we like to be a higher number?  Well, sure, if I had opened the email and read that we'd moved to 15 or 10 or 7; of COURSE, we would have been THRILLED.  But we are right where God has us and wants us to be and, honestly, there's no better place to be.