REFERRAL!!!

Yesterday was the day! I got the call around 11:30am and our adoption coordinator got Jonathan on the phone as well so she could tell us the news. We were so surprised as we didn't think this day would ever come. She told us his name and a few brief things about him medically. He is a very healthy four year old boy and his eyes just light up in his smiles. We are in love. There are no words, no logical thoughts that come into your head when you see the face of a child that God promised you over two years ago. The flood of emotion is overwhelming...for us, our family, for his birth mother that abandoned him as a baby. It's almost too much to bear. It truly brings to light the day we were pulled from the miry clay and became sons and daughters of God. How overjoyed the Lord was when He saw our smiles as we tried to grasp what our new lives in Him would entail. The only thing that stands in the way now is $5635 (within 2 weeks!). A drop in the bucket in God's economy. A huge mountain to us. From the beginning of this journey the Lord told us He would provide one step at a time. So we have obeyed, one step at a time. And He has provided, one step at a time. It is so awesome to see God do His thing, flex His muscles, in His timing, for His glory. We know God will provide this next step and we ask that you would prayerfully consider what He would have you do. Prayer support desperately needed!! Financial support desperately needed!! We would love to have you be a part of this journey to bring our son, T, home. We have a Paypal link on this page (which they take 3% of) I am setting up a Thirty One event. www.mythirtyone.com/tiffanystewart Just Love Coffee donates $5 to us for each bag of coffee you purchase www.justlovecoffee.com/thestewartclan I also sell Scentsy but do not have a website, contact me directly. We still have cookbooks (over 300 recipes) for $15/each. $20 shipped.

COOKBOOKS ARE HERE!!!

Our cookbooks came on Friday and they look amazing!! There are over 300 recipes in there and there is quite a variety! The little boy we put on the cover is pretty darn cute too...so thankful for the Mama that let us use his little face. If you would like to order one, please let us know!! I will ship them for a small fee but they are $15.
So we are still #13 on the list. However I read that there are 40-50 kids in the transition home for our agency between the ages of 2-6. So we are praying that lots of referrals start happening.
Summer officially started here today :) So thankful the kids are out of school and we can just relax and enjoy. We are going to focus on selling our cookbooks and if we can get those sold we will have what we need monetarily to accept his referral, God is good!! He said He would provide one step at a time. And of course He has not let us down :) So thankful this adoption is in His hands otherwise I would be a complete basket case. He has given me such a peace about the waiting process-although the letter writing in Ethiopia isn't back up to what it was before (appx. 5 letters a day now as opposed to 30-50 before) I know that God knows and He has those kids' best interest at heart. He's the Father to the fatherless and loves them more than we do. We will continue to do His work while we're waiting. I am so excited about all that the Lord is doing in our lives...more about that later :)
Thanks again to everyone who is supporting us in prayer, financially or otherwise. It is truly appreciated. Happy summer everyone!!

2 months DTE...

We haven't moved on the list. We are hoping there are some referrals that come this week so we can move on down. I looked over the proof of our cookbook today, it looks great. Now we send it back and they will start printing them up. I can not wait to see them.
I have decided to do our yard sale the first weekend in June. There is so much going on this month!! Our women's retreat is this weekend as is my sister's college graduation. Next weekend there are 3 things going on in one day, I won't be doing them all! The following weekend is Memorial weekend and I didn't think that was a good weekend to do a yard sale. We will also be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary on May 25, by celebrating I mean we'll give each other, well, maybe a card or something :) Life has been so crazy lately and we have a fair amount of stuff up in the air right now. I feel like we are just going day to day right now, I guess life is always like that though. We only have today and are not guaranteed anymore than that.
We have done a few things to save money lately too. We cancelled the cable as the price had gone up (we're not big tohellavision people anyways)and we got rid of our land line again. Also my husband traded in his car for something with a smaller monthly payment. We're excited about those small changes. I am also on the wait list to become a thirty one consultant. They have some amazing products and are a Christian company (based on the Proverbs 31 woman :)) Hopefully that will start up in August so I can make some extra money.
Life is sweet. We are truly enjoying our journey, God is good, ALL the time.

Cookbook

Well my friend and I have completed our cookbook. It should be published by the end of May/beginning of June and will be ready to sell!!! We have almost 300 awesome recipes in it and it has a gorgeous hardback cover. Someone from my friend's adoption agency let us use a picture of her little boy adopted from Ethiopia to grace our cover. He is precious! We called the cookbook Homeward Bound. I am pretty excited about it, they will be $15 each and we are getting 300 of them. Please let us know if you'd like one.
We've been DTE for a month and a half now. We are #44 for a boy under 12 months and #14 for a boy over 12 months. So we're still 3-5 months before we hear anything. I can't wait to get that email titled "Referral". We're using this time to prepare for life as a multi-racial family. There are lots of books out there with great advice for us, the children, and other extended family members. There is so much to learn about the right things to say and not say to people.
My friend ran the half marathon and raised almost $300 for us. Tonite she planned a fundraiser with Lia Sophia so we're hoping we get some people there for that. I have also started collecting items for another yard sale in May. So the fundraising goes on...
I have truly enjoyed watching the Lord work out all the details of this adoption. I love watching who's heart He moves and how. We are enjoying the journey knowing that He is in control and that this will all happen in His perfect timing. There is such peace in Him :)

Looking Up

Things are working out in Ethiopia. They have done some personnel changes with the Ministry of Women's Affairs and they even have a new title MOWCYA (Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs). They are looking to restore the amount of adoptions they process to what they were. With God all things are possible :) Are we really surprised?? Nope!!
Our dossier arrived in Addis Abbaba Ethiopia on March 17. So exciting!! Now we just wait for an email that shows us a picture of our little guy with all his medical and social info. Praising God that we have gotten this far.
So I have been training for this half marathon on April 2. Well I did my long run for the week last Saturday nite, (9 miles) and while I was running I felt a little pain in my left Achilles but nothing major, so I continued running. Well the next day it felt weird. Our friend who does orthotics and prosthetics took one look at it and saw it was swollen. He said I probably tore some ligaments and should stop running. No race for me. I am more than disappointed to say the least. I enjoy running so much. As a stay at home Mom for the past 9 years I have just started running again as of last year. It's my down time, my "me" time, a prayer time. I also get a little grumpy if I don't run almost daily. Not to mention, I have mild scoliosis so if I don't exercise then I deal with chronic back pain. I know training is a little more extensive than what I had been doing so hopefully I can continue running again soon. I know the Lord has a reason for "benching" me so I will not stress about it. "Be still and know that I am God." I am not good at being still, at all. I hate it to be honest, sitting is my least favorite thing. Anyone that sits near me at church can probably testify to that. I fidget and switch positions constantly, not to the point of distracting others of course. I watch in amazement at people who don't move the entire service. The Lord wants us to be still in Him. My husband was just telling me how I always "find" projects to do as soon as I finish one. I wish the Lord didn't have to go to such extremes for me to sit and be still. I will learn...God has something big planned for us and I felt as though He said, "If you were willing to spend that much time training for a race, how much time are you willing to train for what I have in store for you next?" Ouch. So I enter a brief season of rest. "But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ." Phil.3:7-8
I have been able to add more recipes to the cookbook we're doing to raise money for the adoption. We were aiming for 200 but are at over 250!! Pretty exciting, I must say. So that's been a way I've been able to be productive. More fundraisers to come...

PLEASE SIGN!!!

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43714.html


Ethiopia is looking to reduce the number of adoptions by around 90%!!! Our paperwork will be headed there on Friday and we don't want to wait any longer to bring our son home. Please sign the above petition and pass it along. This is very important!!

DTE March 11, 2011!!!

In adoption speak this means our dossier will be going to Ethiopia on March 11. I can't believe it!! Our last paperwork and check will be arriving at our agency on Monday, then it has to be authenticated in DC before traveling across the pond :)How did we get here you ask? God. Within a few weeks He provided the money we needed through a matching grant and other monetary gifts. That's just how He works. One of the largest gifts we received was from people we don't even know! It is nothing we could have planned for or foreseen. He will do it His way and in His timing. I can't emphasize enough that God is our provider, Jehovah-Jireh. If adoption has ever been on your heart, please prayerfully consider what God wants you to do. The money may not be there to do it, but God will be, and He will bless you exceedingly above what you could ever imagine. My heart is so touched by ALL of the people who have helped our son get one step closer to home. Seeing hearts break for orphans that never really considered what it all meant, it's all so beyond us. If you have helped at all, whether it be prayers or monetarily, THANK YOU!