I was just saying yesterday how I was suprised that we hadn't gotten anything back from immigration for when we went to Nashville and got fingerprinted.  I went home for lunch and it was in my mailbox!

So it's officially, official...we aren't criminals and are approved to adopt an orphan!  WHEW

I found out that it takes about a week for our paperwork to be translated into Amharic, which is the native language of Ethiopia.   Once our paperwork is translated it is matched up with the official documents with all the seals and it will sit in the adoption agencies office in Ethiopia until a child is available.

And now we just wait....and wait....and pray.  At first I thought to myself "I can't wait until a child becomes avaiable" which is the selfish side of me.  But then I thought of the sacrifice that a mother is going to have to make to better the life of her child by giving her up and I can't imagine the turmoil she must be feeling when faced with that reality.  So instead, I choose to pray for our daughter's biological mother - that if/when she is faced with the situation that she must selflessly give her child a better life that she finds some peace in knowing that her daughter will be SO loved.

To update everyone - my documents left Washington DC last week and made their way to my adoption agency in Florida.  A copy of my paperwork had already been sent so my originals are en route (if not already there!) to Ethiopia.

The next step is to just to wait.  The Director of the adoption agency told me that they haven't received a referral (a child that is available for adoption with picture) in awhile so it could be about 4 months until we get our referral.

So in the meantime I'll be finding things to keep me busy.  I've been working on a few craft projects but one of the things I'm most proud about is the collection of shoes I have gathered.  You may have read a few posts earlier that I was moved by a book called "Kisses from Katie" in regards to children in Africa and the consequences of their lack of shoes.

The daycare that our son goes to graciously offered to collect shoes and socks as their end of the year project.  I also informed my mom back in Iowa about what they were doing and she joined in.  I also visited our local goodwill and bought all the childrens shoes that were half price, making them about $1 per pair.

I lined them up tonight just to see how many we had collected and I counted 41 pairs!  I didn't count the socks but there was a small box full, plus a package of brand new socks someone had donated at the daycare.  I was so moved by everyones generousity and can't wait to take pictures when we deliver the shoes.  I had considered mailing the box but I think it will be considerably cheaper to take them with us as a carryon.  I imagine the box of shoes to ship would be several hundred dollars.

Here's some pictures of the shoes and socks we have gathered! 

I'm sure after reading this post you might think I'm crazy but the FedEx guy just left our office and my heart is beating a mile a minute!  It's been a good 9-10 months I've been working on our adoption documents.  I've had to order several reports, go around town to get certain things signed and notarized.  I've had to do several documents over because they weren't signed correctly, notarized wrong or someone used white out on their mistake and adoption documents can't have ANY WHITE OUTS!

Needless to say, here are all my documents (about 40 sheets of paper) bundled neatly inside this Fedex package.  These puppies are headed to Washington DC to get seals from the US Dept of State and the Ethiopian Embassy.

After all the seals are applied the courier will send my documents to my adoption agency.  Then the final documents will be mailed on to Ethiopia.  I sent 2 copies of these 40 pages to the adoption agency already and those are being sent to Ethiopia to begin the translation phase. 

As far as I know we are still #2 on the wait list and our adoption agency Director just got back from a recent trip to Ethiopia.  Also, the lady who did my homestudy, Kelly Stewart (http://www.kellystewart.org/) just passed court and is traveling to Ethiopia right now to pick up her sweet son, Judson!!

You can bet I made my FedEx guy well aware that he was holding my most prized possession in his hands.  When I handed them over to him he sort of chuckled and asked if I was ok with handing them over.  I'm glad to have them out of my hands and on to the next step...but you can also bet that I followed him out the door and watched him drive away.  (Not before I snapped this photo of his truck...just in case my docs get lost) HA HA

We had our fingerprinting appointment yesterday in Nashville at 8am - therefore, we had to get up EARLY!  Here's proof, it was still really dark (and yes, I was speeding!)

I was thankful that the fingerprinting place wasn't downtown because we were running a bit late and downtown can be a bit confusing to navigate if you aren't familiar with the one ways.  So we only arrive about 10 min late and thankfully it was no problem.  We were both in and out in no time.  No pictures were allowed inside and Tommy wouldn't pose in front of the door so here we go:

Then we headed downtown to get our State Seals on our paperwork.  Everything has to be verified at different levels and the person who verified it needs to be verified.  You follow?  lol  Needless to say we took a few wrong turns and went around a few blocks and were finally on the right path when look what we encountered:

A stalled city bus, right in our way.  Once again we had to go around the block to get to the other side, GRRR!

There she is, Snodgrass tower!

Sixth Floor notary division...here I come!

A super nice lady named Jamie helped me out.  I thought she'd think I was weird to ask for her picture so I took a picture of her desk while she was off getting my seals. 

It felt AWESOME to get one more thing checked off our list.  I'm gearing up this week to now send these documents to Washington DC.  A courier service called Assistant Stork will receive our documents and walk them into the capital to get "verified" and then she'll walk them over to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington to get them "verified" there as well.  Then all our documents will get sent to our adoption agency to be mailed off to Ethiopia.

So I added a new page to my blog above titled "wish list". 
My techno-genius friend, Brandon, suggested it.  It highlights some of our upcoming expenses and other ways you can help if you are interested!



In other news we have our fingerprinting appointment on Jan 3rd in Nashville.  At the same time we are downtown we plan to get the State Seals we need for our paperwork bundle.  Once we receive those seals then our paperwork heads to Washington DC and then off to Ethiopia!!

I was talking with the Director of our adoption agency this morning and she told me we are #2 on the wait list for a little girl!!

As I was talking to her she told me that Ethiopia celebrates Christmas on Jan 7th - which is awesome because that is our son's birthday.  (Coincidence? I think not!) Their calendar year runs differently than ours as well as their Christmas traditions. 

Christmas in Ethiopia The Ethiopian Christmas known as Ganna is celebrated on January 7th. The day before Ganna, people fast all day. The next morning at dawn (around 4am), everyone dresses in white and attends church. Most Ethiopians don a traditional shamma, a thin, white cotton wrap with brightly colored stripes across the ends. The shamma is worn somewhat like a toga. This celebration takes place in ancient churches carved from solid volcanic rock and also in modern churches that are designed in three concentric circles. Men and boys sit separately from girls and women. Also the choir sings from the outside circle.   People receive candles as they enter the church. After lighting the candles everyone walks around the church three times, then stands throughout the mass, which may last up to three hours.  

Food served at Christmas usually includes wat, a thick, spicy stew of meat, vegetables, and sometimes eggs. The wat is served from a beautifully decorated watertight basket onto a "plate" of injera, which is flat sourdough bread. Pieces of injera are used as an edible spoon to scoop up the wat.   Gift giving is a very small part of Christmas celebration. Children usually receive very simple presents such as clothing.  Religious observances, feasting, and games are the focus of the season.  After the service is over the rest of the day is spent dancing, playing sport and feasting. Around the time of Ganna, the men and boys play a game that is also called ganna. It is somewhat like hockey, played with a curved stick and a round wooden ball.   Twelve days after Ganna, on January 19, Ethiopians begin the three-day celebration called Timkat, which commemorates the baptism of Christ. The children walk to church services in a procession. They wear the crowns and robes of the church youth groups they belong to. The grown-ups wear the shamma. The priests will now wear their red and white robes and carry embroidered fringed umbrellas. The music of Ethiopian instruments makes the Timkat procession a very festive event. The sistrum is a percussion instrument with tinkling metal disks. A long, T-shaped prayer stick called a makamiya taps out the walking beat and also serves as a support for the priest during the long church service that follows. Sources:

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/christmas-traditions-around-the-world-ga4.htm

http://www.santas.net/ethiopianchristmas.htm

Christmas this year will be much different at our house. 

The holiday season is always full of giving and this year I'd like to encourage people to give with a purpose.  There are so many websites and opportunities to purchase a gift that will benefit someone else besides the gift receiver.

Please consider visiting some of these websites for your gift purchasing this year.  not only is there some great products out there but it just makes sense to help out others as well.

Visit http://www.olivetreepromise.com/ where there are many different products listed from artwork, apparell, jewelry and much more.  When these products are purchased you can choose a family to donate half of the proceeds to!  (We are listed under Ethiopia but of course you can choose any family that you might want to help!)



Coffee Lover in the family??  Visit www.justlovecoffee.com/thejohnsonfamily to purchase a wide variety of very delicious coffee.  There are a number of blends available - my favorite is the African Skies blend.  For every bag of coffee purchased, $5 will go towards our adoption.

Visit http://hannahjames.storenvy.com/ to purchase very cute, unique jewelry.  This family that sells the jewelry not only is adopting themselves but helps out other families adopting.  The family that runs the site picks a partnering family each month and 50% of the proceeds for their month is sent to that adopting family.

They've got these adorable rings, hair pins, earrings, necklaces and duffel bags!!





Search etsy.com for the word "adoption" and you can find a lot of products for sale with proceeds going towards adopting families.

Gray/orange Kenya bead bracelet

http://www.etsy.com/listing/82009688/kenyan-pops-of-color-wrap-bracelet-shop

Visit http://www.toms.com/ and purchase a pair of these cool shoes!  For every shoe purchased they donate one pair of shoes to someone in need.  They have some pretty neat videos on youtube where they have documented shoe drops all over the world.



Visit http://www.amazima.org/7ways.html to learn about ways you can help the wonderful people in Uganda.  If you have a person who you really don't know what to get them for the holidays considering sponsoring a child in their name.  You can also donate formula and many other things in their name.




Check out our adoption agencies "shop" page.  There are several cute items that are for sale that benefit their humanitarian programs.  http://www.celebratechildren.org/store/EthiopiaShop.php

Visit my "for sale" tab on my main blog page to check out wreaths, lion pillows, earrings, bows and tshirt scarves I have for sale.  I plan to start an etsy shop but I just haven't had time quite yet!

If you know of any other websites that help support please leave a comment and I will add it.