Free Shipping on Our Website!

Daniel and I have decided to offer a stimulus package of our own. We are offering FREE SHIPPING on all Go. Seek. Love. T-shirts and note cards through May 1st! We are hoping to stimulate the Africa T-shirt economy so that we can make the required $6,000 payment when we submit our dossier. Everything with the adoption seems to be falling into place quickly, which is a huge blessing, but we are working like mad to keep up with the fundraising side of things.

So check out our website and pick out a T-shirt for someone you love! They make great gifts too! We even have kids’ sizes and onesies, in addition to the fitted and classic T-shirts. Thank you and God bless you!

www.duboisadoption.com

Easter Basket

Madeline's Easter Basket 2008

The Same Easter Basket 2009

My, haven't we grown in a year?

Here are a few more fun photos of our Easter activities:



It's a lot more fun to put the basket on your head than it is to hold it.



I can't sit still to have my picture taken anymore....



Easter egg hunt at church



Playing with the sparkly Easter egg lights










































Playing with Aunt Rachel (who is having a BABY in September!!!!)



Cool shoes, Aunt Emily! Can I have some like that?

Drawn from Water

I just read an amazing story about work that God is doing in Ethiopia to save the lives of children from the Kara tribe. If the children of this superstitious tribe are born out of wedlock or without their married mother first announcing her intentions of becoming pregnant, or if they are born with certain physical characteristics, they are considered to be cursed or “mingi.” The children are then killed by the elders of the tribe by binding their arms and legs and throwing them in the river.

In February of this year a team of American missionaries discovered what was going on and began rescuing children sentence to die. In the last two months nine children have been rescued. They have set up an orphanage for the children, and they are calling it Drawn from Water. They estimate that last year 77 children were killed by the elders of this tribe. They expect for the orphanage to grow quickly, and they will need lots of money and support to keep going.

The story of what God is doing to rescue these children is amazing. Check out their website at www.drawnfromwater.org for more details.


Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

Fingerprints......Check!

Daniel and I were fingerprinted twice this week – once by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and once by the FBI. Each time Daniel was told that he should never rob a bank because of his deep and distinct fingerprints. Good to know.

Going to the FBI site on Thursday was a pleasure. The site also serves as the location where people who are going through the immigration process must report to be fingerprinted. When we arrived, we found four rows of chairs filled with waiting people from many different nations – Russia, Vietnam (we think), Mexico, Tanzania, and….Ethiopia! I spotted him immediately. He was sitting on the front row. As my eyes moved over the crowded area, looking for a place to sit, they paused on him and I thought – “He has got to be from Ethiopia!” He had the beautiful characteristic skin tone, the distinctive features, and the smooth dark hair. He left before I had a chance to talk to him (I have GOT to get over my shy-ness and learn to just talk to people), but I confirmed my suspicions by asking the fingerprinting lady where he was from. It makes me giddy to just be in the same room as someone from Ethiopia!

I love to people watch, and this was a great place to do it. We waited on the back row so that we could see everyone in the room. I enjoyed guessing their stories, wondering about the details of what brought them from their home countries to where they are today: waiting in an immigration office to be fingerprinted so they can become citizens or permanent residents of the United States. I was struck again (as I often am these days) by how blessed I am to have been born in America, a country that so many are willing to give up so much to come to. I was born having freedoms that many in this world will never enjoy. And many will risk their lives to attain.

I have done nothing to deserve the life of privilege that I live. I am certain of that. I am also certain that God did not send me to a Christian family with parents who love me in a country where I live in freedom and without fear just so that I can sit back and relax for the rest of my life, while accumulating possessions and saving for a bigger house.

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” - Luke 12:48

Oh Lord, show me your will for my life. I have been entrusted with much. I want to give much. May I be found faithful.

Shrooms!

By Daniel-

This post is, by all accounts, silly. Likely it will mean absolutely nothing to all but a few with Hoosier blood. Sarah, Madeline, and I were hiking this afternoon at Percy Warner park here in Nashville. We were nearing the end of our hike when we passed a man on the trail who was carrying a handful of these:



Morel mushrooms. For the uninitiated, these bad boys are found in the woods in spring and are one of the finest things to hit your taste buds—that’s right boys and girls-they’re edible. And what a delight they are! They’re a bit like a poor man’s truffle. I had assumed you couldn’t find them in Tennessee, as they are typically found in colder climates. But to my delight they were growing right here in Davidson County. Excited by the possibility of finding some of our own, we hunted for a few minutes. It wasn’t long before M started to get impatient and we had to head home. Maybe one day…

M's New Hobby

Madeline has discovered the piano. At least ten times a day she crawls over, pulls up on the piano bench, stands on her tippy-toes and starts “playing.” I’ve been letting her bang on it for months now while sitting on my lap. But now that she can do it herself, I think it has become lots more fun for her.

She has figured out that if she moves her hand from left to right, the pitch begins to get higher. She works her fingers up the keyboard, enjoying the changing sound.

I do love to watch her learn. I can almost see the new connections being formed in that little brain.

Adoption Update

Madeline is sleeping right now, and I thought I would spend a few of the precious moments of her naptime to update the world on where we are in the adoption process.

We have been busy bees the last couple of months. Night and day we work on adoption stuff: paperwork, financial statements, training courses, required reading, doctor appointments, home study appointments, writing our autobiographies, doing our taxes, having our friends and employers write letters, and on and on and on. And then there is the fundraising and blogging and, oh yeah, there’s the praying. It is so easy to get distracted amidst all this.

I have become the CPO (Chief Paperwork Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer), and CSK (Chief Schedule Keeper), while Daniel is functioning as the CFRO (Chief Fundraising Officer), Webmaster, and CMM (Chief Money Maker). The two of us have diverse gifts, and it works out beautifully. Neither of us could do it without the other.

Here is where we stand:

Home Study

We have had three of the four appointments with our social worker, Bethany. Bethany is awesome, and the appointments have actually been fun. She has asked us lots of questions about our reasons for adopting, our reasons for choosing Ethiopia, and our faith. We have also talked about our marriage, how we handle conflict, and our philosophies for child rearing. We each had to write an autobiography that we discussed with her, detailing our childhood and parents, education and employment, hobbies and interests, marriage and family relationships, and our community and support network. Our fourth and final appointment is scheduled for April 13^th. She will come to inspect our house at that one, and we will give her all the remaining paperwork.

Here is the list of documents that we have to provide for our home study. I have crossed through the ones that I am finished with:

• Autobiographies
• Birth certificates for all three of us
• Marriage certificate
• Employment verification letters (one down, one to go)
• 2008 Tax return
• Three letters of recommendation (two down, one to go)
• Guardianship statement
• Financial statement (almost done with this)
• Medical reports for parents (almost done – still have to get Daniel’s notarized)
• Medical report for Madeline
• Proof of health insurance
• Police clearance and background check (I have sent off for this, but we’re still waiting on it)
• Fingerprinting by TBI (next week)
• Reading list agreement (Six books that we have to read, but for now we just have to sign that we promise to read them. Then we can finish reading later, thank goodness.)

Dossier

Whew! This is a lot of work. But we are plodding steadily along. Some of the home study paperwork overlaps with the dossier paperwork, and that certainly helps. Every single thing has to be notarized, and that has made some things complicated. For instance, neither of us had a primary care doctor. So I had to find someone that (1) could fit us in quickly and (2) has a notary in the office and (3) was willing to go to the trouble of filling out the form and having it notarized, even though we were not previous patients. It all works out, though, and most of the time I’ve found that people are interested to hear about what we are doing and very willing to help.

Here is the list of dossier requirements:

• Hague Training (ten hour online course on international adoption). We both just finished this week, and we’re so relieved!
• Application letter
• Employment letters (one down, one to go)
• Financial statement (almost done with this)
• Medical reports for parents (almost done with this – just have to have one of them notarized)
• Police clearance and background checks (I have sent off for this, but we’re still waiting on it)
• Fingerprinting by FBI and TBI (both next week)
• Three letters of recommendation (two down, one to go)
• Birth certificates
• Marriage certificates
• Passports
• Completed home study
• Proof of health insurance
• Proof of life insurance (one down, one to go)
• Power of attorney papers
• Agency recommendation
• Family photo pages
• Extra passport photos
• USCIS Approval (I sent off for this two weeks ago, and it will take several weeks to come back. It will probably be the last thing we will be waiting to add to our dossier.)

After everything is completed and notarized, we have to send the entire packet to the county to be certified and to the state to be authenticated. This means that they will certify at both the county and state level that the notaries who have signed our papers are true notaries. And I just realized as I was writing this that some of our notaries have been in Davidson county and some have been in Cheatham. So I think I will have to have our documents certified in both counties. Shoot.

Fundraising

It is fun watching God provide for our every need throughout the adoption. We have committed our plans to him from the beginning, and we trust completely that he will give us all we need at just the time that we need it. We raised about $1,000 on T-shirt sales so far. We sold lots when we first offered them, but sadly we haven’t had any sales in a while now.

In addition, we have been incredibly blessed to receive two generous and unexpected donations from family members. Thank you so much, guys! You have humbled us with our generosity and encouraged us with your support.

I am also hosting a Green Gold fundraising party on April 18^th. I attended one of these parties for a friend, Tracy, who is adopting FOUR children from Ethiopia, and she raised $2,000! Here is how it works: There will be a gold buying agent at the party who will purchase gold at the current London Gold Fix Price and pay everyone for their gold that day in cash. My friends and family can bring their gold (old or broken jewelry, even dental gold) and sell it at the party. They will go home with cash, and the hostess (me) will get to keep a small percentage of the total profits of the party. Let me know if you are interested in coming. I’m having the party at my church where there is lots of room, and it is open to anyone!

I have also picked up a new bookkeeping client, and I am able to do the work from home. I’ve been devoting nighttime and naptime hours each week to that work, and it is blessing our adoption fund, as well.

*****

In a nutshell, that is where we stand with all the areas of our adoption. As you can see, life is crazy. Please keep praying for us that:

• We keep our focus on God and on why we are adopting throughout all this busywork
• All of our paperwork continues to go smoothly and we will be able to submit our dossier as soon as possible (and start the clock ticking on our expected twelve month wait)
• God will provide all of the money that we need at just the right time
• God will give us guidance on the areas of our life that need to change in order to prepare for the addition of our Ethiopian son (more diversity, increased support network of adoptive families, etc.)

Thank you and God bless you!