Really hard decision.

It has been a difficult last few days for our family, but we are doing a lot better now.  We received a lot of information Monday on the children who were sort-of referred (they were working on the official referral) to us from Colombia.  I am really impressed and grateful for all the details and  reports that ICBF puts together and gives to the prospective adoptive parents for review.  We received 30 pages of information in one report and in another there were 60 pages!

This part is going to be pretty vague on our reasons, but we did have to let our agency know that we felt this particular group of children would not be a good match for our family - and for the sibling group themselves.  We knew when our hearts were opened to adoption that any child we brought into our home would likely have a past filled with turmoil and hurt.  In this case, we felt we would not be able to provide the best type of attention the children would need, especially with already having our other four.

I was just about to write how difficult the adoption process can be at times for some adoptive parents, but then I remembered the children.  The trials we go through in having delayed paperwork, the complaints we may have in needing to notarize one more piece of paper, or even having to make the difficult decision that our family isn't the best one to provide for the specific needs of a certain child during the adoption process are nothing compared to those trials and difficulties that an orphan is often forced to experience:

The loss of a mother and a father
No kisses or cuddles
Malnutrition
Forced child labor
Parasites
Sexual abuse
Mental abuse
Physical abuse
Abandonment

These are all real.

I haven't had to experience any of them in my life -
and I am 37 years old.

The children we were referred have.

The oldest child is only 9 years old.  Within the 9 short years of his life, he had experienced not just one of these "difficulties", not just two of these "difficulties", but he had to experience almost ALL of them.  Please, consider welcoming a child into your home and into your family and give a child the gift of:


A mother and a father
Kisses and cuddles
Food
A time to play
A healthy body
Safety
Kind words
A gentle hand
The comfort of knowing you will be there for them when they need you

These are all real.

Please help us in the Kohl's Love to Give Contest! We need your vote!

Our family has an entry in the Kohl's Love to Give Contest and we need your vote!  If you are on Facebook or would like to join up, you can vote for us each day until November 28th.  If we are one of 200 entrants to be chosen, we could go on to the Finalist Contest!  Votes count for 10% of the judges decisions.  If we make it to the Finals, I think the number of votes each entry has is how they determine the winners.

Here is a link to our page: Her belly wasn't full.

Just follow the link, sign in to facebook, "like" Kohl's, and click the big "vote" button.  Really simple!  Oh - and please share the link with others.  That will help a lot!

This is pretty much what our entry looks like:

Her belly wasn't full.

At 3 yrs old, Lyric didn't know how to feel full & kept eating & eating, not knowing how to stop. She’s better now, but it took about a year before she knew that food was always available and that she wouldn’t go hungry. We adopted Lyric in Dec. 2010, and she is one of the inspirations for our family of 6. On our own, we can't provide for all the orphans, but we can provide for a few. We have been approved to adopt a sibling group of 4 – I can’t wait to shower them with love, hugs – and food!

Thank you for helping us!

NAMES, GENDERS AND AGES - OH MY!

Thankfully, within the last week we have gotten everything else we needed paperwork-wise to Nichole's desk at Children's Hope.  It all should have been there by 10:00 this morning.  (This should be all that Colombia needs in order to give us an official referral match with the children!)  We knew Nichole was flying back from Colombia last night and that she would be in the office for a few hours today, and just in case she had a chance to forward our paperwork on to Colombia, we wanted it ready for her!

We knew she would be in today - we just didn't know when.  I thought if we did hear from her it would be in an email, so I was really surprised when Kevin came over and said he needed to see me in the office - quickly. 

I didn't have a clue. 

I heard Tyler yell from the kitchen, "Did you get a phone call?" 

I still didn't have a clue. 

Kevin replied in an unbelievably steady voice, "Yes.  That's why I need your mother." 

I'm starting to catch on.  

"Yahoo!" yelled Tyler. 

How did he figure it all out before I did???  

At the door Kevin had to explain to me that Nichole had called!  He said that she had names, genders, birthdays and where they were from!  Ever hear the expression, "Be still my heart?"  I'm not sure if it fits, but I think mine stopped for a few seconds.  Words can not describe how I felt just KNOWING that we were going to get to hear this information. 

We quickly left the children in the house, letting them know we would be back soon to share with them what we found out, and headed over to Kevin's office.  I grabbed pen and paper while Kevin made the call - Oh, no!  He had to leave a message!  I asked if he tried Nichole's direct line and got that for him.  Still busy.  I theorized that Nichole was on the other end giving another family good news and that it could take awhile, so I headed back to the house.  Kevin and I agreed that he would call me on my cell when Nichole called him,and then I would come back to the office.

Back at home, as I walked in the door I yelled that we didn't know anything yet because the phone was busy.  I didn't want the kids getting their hopes up for information just because I walked in the door.

I got myself settled down again at the same place where I am now - yup, in front of the computer.  In just a few more minutes MY phone rings and it's Nichole!  She must not have received Kevin's message to call him at the office.  I had Nichole wait a minute while I got my shoes on and headed back over to Kevin's office.  (His office is above our detached garage.  We wanted to talk to Nichole there b/c we have a nice land-line, otherwise it is just my cell phone with poor reception).  He was surprised when I showed up!  I gave Nichole Kev's office number and had just enough time to grab the pen and paper while waiting for her to call back.


The ages and the genders of the children couldn't be more perfect.  Here is what we learned:

The oldest is a boy and he is 9 years old.
The next is a girl and she is 6 years old.
The next is another girl and she is 4 years old, but will be 5 in December.
The youngest is another boy and he is 3 years old (we thought originally 2 years old).

That means if we travel in January to pick them up, our children will be: 13, 12, 10, 9, 6, 5, 4 and 3!  Oh my - look at it the other way!  They will be 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12 and 13!  It's going to be FUN!  Oh, and as another adoptive mom pointed out to me - we will have 8 children within a 10 year time-span.  I love it.

We did learn their names, but I'm not sure if I can share that yet.  I'll ask next week and then post here if I can.  We also learned that they are from Florencia.  While researching Florencia I found the blog of another family who adopted a sibling group of 3 from the same area.  I'll put that on my side bar.  As soon as I'm done here, I'm going to read through their entire blog!

One of the things that we were hoping for is that we would travel by the end of the year, but that doesn't look like it is going to happen.  Nichole said that ICBF (Colombia) was very disappointed with this as they really like to see the children with their new families as soon as possible, and they hoped we were an I600 family.  If we were doing this adoption under what is called "I-600" then we could have traveled in about 2 weeks.  But since we are what is called an "I-800" family, it will take our government at a minimum of 5 weeks to process all the paperwork they have us fill out.  Bah.  Humbug.

Fortunately, I am a BIG believer in God's perfect timing and that all things are for His glory.  I am totally excited to be a part of this adoption adventure and grateful that He has opened our hearts to building our family through adoption.  The waiting will be hard, but when we do finally get to meet our children it will be all the more sweeter because it is His perfect timing - and not ours (which isn't so perfect).

Can't wait to share more information with all of you!

In His name,

Karen

OH!  I forgot to share how Carissa, Tyler, Laurel and Lyric responded to the news.  Tyler was happy to hear that the 3 year old was a boy - he is finally (after 12 years) getting himself a brother.  We said the next two were girls and everyone was really happy about that.  Finally, we said that the oldest, who was 9, was a boy.  Tyler, who was on the other side of the room from me and sitting on the couch, jumped up, ran to me and tackled me in pure joy and happiness.  Laurel is happy that at least one of the older ones is a girl.  Carissa is just happy she is getting more siblings.  And Lyric, we told her she was going to be a big sister.  So far, she's really liking it!

What a roller coaster kind-of day!

Today definitely had its ups and downs regarding our adoption.  At one point I apologized (via email) to our officer from USCIS for pestering her and not being patient.  It may have been more than one phone call and one email last week to find out information and then it may have been (okay, I think it was) more than one phone call and one email this week to see if there was any new movement on our supplement 3 (approval we need to adopt up to 9 years old instead of up to 8 years old).

You see, there is a great website known as rumor queen (China Adopt Talk) that is mainly geared to China adoptions.  Lots and lots of activity on that site and on the forums.  They keep stats of every bit of paperwork so you know the average timelines for approvals.  I was on it a lot for our adoption of Lyric, and I hopped back on it to track how fast the USCIS paperwork had been moving.  What I was finding was that there were some people who already had their approvals for their I800's (processed at the same time as the supplement 3's) even though they had sent theirs in after us. 

I let this information make me a bit, well, let's be nice and say "a little impatient" and sent me into what could lovingly be called "THE CHECKING ZONE" or not so lovingly as "TEMPORARY OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVENESS IN REGARDS TO VARIOUS ADOPTION PAPERWORK APPROVAL IN ORDER TO MOVE ON TO THE NEXT STEP IN THE PROCESS DISORDER".   This disorder looks a little like this (and if you know of anyone who is adopting you may recognize these signs on occasion): Mom is often found sitting in front of the computer.  Just a little at first.  And then you notice that she is more often at the computer then not at the computer.  She may have developed a callus on her right index finger from hitting refresh on her screen every 5 minutes so she can check  to see if there are any new emails.  If she is waiting for a phone call, then when the phone rings, she feels a tightening in her stomach and a "let's not get my hopes up too much" feeling washes over her in the split second before she rushes to see who is calling.  If she is expecting something in the mail, she watches or listens for the mail man.  She KNOWS the earliest that he/she may arrive.  If it is nice out, she may walk out herself to check.  If it is not so nice and it is raining, she may bundle up the children and send them to check the mail while waiting comfortably inside the house at the door where she can yell out, "Anything?" just as soon as the children get close enough to hear her.  (yes!  I'm guilty!  Fresh air is good for kids - even if it is raining). Dinners, breakfasts, and lunches were once really nice with a lot of home-made items.  Now you notice that cereal, mac and cheese, hot dogs, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are frequenting the menu much more often. (We had hot dogs for dinner and I just bought peanut butter and bread for tomorrow's lunch.  The peach jam is home-made though!) 

Take heart.  The symptoms of this disorder ARE temporary, but they can only be put into remission when whatever piece of paperwork she has been expecting has been delivered.  It is a cycle, but she can be cured.  She will be cured when she holds her precious child in her arms. It is a happy ending for a disorder with a really long name!  (Beware though.  On occasion, some moms who adopt find that the disorder sneaks back into their lives.  Dad's: one sure sign it is coming back is if you often see your wife sitting in front of the computer (again) with pictures of many different children on the screen who don't have family's yet.)  As far as disorders go - it's a really good one to have!)

Back to my day.  Kind-of got side-tracked there.  Because of this disorder, at 12:00 today I told myself I would not check my email again until 4:00.  Gulp.  I only made it until 2:00.  (Baby steps here!)  To my very, very surprised self, there were TWO emails from our officer at USCIS!  I quickly clicked the top one and with a glance saw that we could be approved - IF they get some information from our adoption agency.  I saw all this in a split second.  Not one second later, my phone rings.  Turning in slow motion towards the phone, I hear Laurel say, "It's an unknown caller."  Hopping quickly out of my chair in front of the computer, I rush to answer the phone.  On the other end of the line is our USCIS Officer!  She asked if I had received her email.  I think I blabbered that I had told myself I wouldn't check my email until four, but I couldn't wait that long and had just opened it up when she called (She is a good officer and let me blabber away).  She told me the same thing the email said - that she could approve it today if we got some information from our agency.  They had to send in evidence (a letter) which stated as a Hague-approved agency they had reviewed our home study and that it was all correct and conforms with, well, conforms with something.  In just one of the emails I had previously sent her, I had told her that Nichole, from our agency, was actually in Colombia on behalf of Children's Hope, and that if I could get her our approval while she was still over there then she would get it translated and to the right people quickly.  It seems our officer wanted to make sure, not only just by emailing, but by calling as well, that we could work on it as soon as possible.  I told her I would contact our agency and see if anyone there could get it done, and guess what?  They did! (Thank you, Children's Hope!)  At 4:52 this afternoon we received an email saying that a "favorable decision had been rendered" on our application - in other words, "we were approved!"

Wait!  There's more to the roller coaster ride!  Before Nichole (from our agency) left for Colombia she had emailed and asked when our FBI fingerprints had last been done.  I emailed her the other day that it was in April, but hadn't heard back yet b/c she is now in Colombia.  I finally got around to looking in our travel guide and it said that the FBI prints have to be done within 6 months of travel. UH OH!  It took about 8 weeks to get them done last time and we really would like to be in Colombia by then.  (Personally, I think by the end of 2011 would be perfect timing to get our children, but my "perfect" timing and God's perfect timing isn't the same thing.  Mine is flawed and His is not.  Really excited to see how He works the rest of this adoption story out!)

When Kevin got home from work we rushed over to the police station at 3:30 to get our prints done and in the mail for the FBI in West Virginia.  We did a few more errands (picked up peanut butter and bread) and headed back home by about 5:30.  I felt drawn to the computer.  Really, with this disorder, checking email is very hard to control.  To those who have phones that you can check your email on - oh, how I fight Envy during times like these!  My computer was the first thing I went to.  Well, the second thing.  I got a big hug from Lyric first.

How GREAT it was to see the email from our Officer at USCIS.  We were approved!  But wait.  There is no remission for my disorder yet.  I'm still hoping to get information from our agency about the children.  That could come at ANY time.  And next week, I'm sure to be running out to the mailbox (or in inclement weather I will bundle up the children for their bit of fresh air) just as soon as I think the mail man has been by.

After I checked email and had cheered (another symptom of the disorder I forgot to mention previously.  Cheering can be accompanied with happy tears,hugs, lot's of phone calls to friends and family relaying the good news, and, yes, more time on the computer as the mom updates all her wonderful internet friends because she knows that many of them have experienced the same disorder or are even experiencing it now.), I saw a post on facebook from someone in my local Christian Adoption Support Group.  Before we had left in a rush to get the FBI prints done, I had posted an update on our group (yes, updating others whom you have never met except online at every step of the process is a symptom!) about having to get the prints done and that it could take 8 weeks to get them back.  Another adoptive mom had posted back that they went through the state police to get theirs done and it only took about 2 WEEKS! 

"Um.  Honey?  Kevin? Maybe we should have waited a day to get our FBI fingerprints done"...

And that was the end of my day.

Almost.

I'm at the end of it now.

Telling friends, family, and those whom I have never met, all about my adoption roller coaster ride of the day.
 
(It can be one of the symptoms also...)

Grateful for all He has done in our lives and for placing adoption into our hearts,
Karen

Just the girls...

Carissa at the state fair with one of her photography posters

At the zoo - it was a beautiful day with the sun shining and the wind gently blowing

At the zoo.  Kevin had just bought some Dippin' Dots.  Lyric really, really would like some!

Laurel dressed Lyric up for fun and added the memo :)

Just a quick update

No new news on the children, but our paperwork is moving along with USCIS.  We received our receipt in the mail at the beginning of the week, and I'm praying we receive our approval this coming week.  I have been in contact with our officer at USCIS and she offered to let us know via email when our paperwork had a decision made on it.  That will be really good to know so we can watch for the paperwork in the mail and be prepared to get it notarized and apostilled and sent to our agency the day we get it.

One bit of information we are pretty excited about is that Nichole from Children's Hope (our agency) will be traveling to Colombia on Tuesday.  While there she will try to find out more information about the children for us!  Very excited about that, and I know that after Tuesday of next week I will be checking my email about a gazillion times a day just to see if she had emailed us :)

After we do get the paperwork from USCIS we will scan it in and email it to Nichole so she can get it translated and into the right hands.  Until then, we will keep on praying :)

In His name,

Karen

Waiting on the paperwork

I realized a bit ago that I should have posted an update here before now!  We decided to go ahead and update our home study so we could be approved for up to 9 years old, and about two weeks ago we had our social worker write up an addendum/update for us.  As soon as she got that done, Kevin picked it up and brought it home.  We signed the papers, scanned them in and emailed them to our agency.  Nichole (from agency) then sent them on to Colombia to their translator, hoping to get a head start on the translating of the paperwork.  Next,  Kevin overnighted the paperwork to USCIS in Texas. 

On Tuesday, October 4th at 3:30 in the morning, Kevin received a text saying our application/petition had been received and was routed to the National Benefits Center for processing.  It said that within 7 - 10 days by standard mail we will receive our official Receipt Notice (Form I-797) with our Receipt Number.  I know that's how it worked with our original I800 paperwork, but I'm not sure if it will be the same with this update.  I think I'll give them a call on Monday to ask about the process.  Oh, Kevin usually leaves his cell phone in the kitchen at night, but for some reason he had brought it upstairs with him that night.  In the morning I had to ask him if he had really told me in the middle of the night that we had received the email or if I had just been dreaming!

We haven't received any more information on the children other then they are pretty healthy.  It sounds like we won't learn anything else until after we get this new paperwork translated and into ICBF's (Colombia's Welfare Institute) hands.

In the mean time, we are having a fundraising yard sale!  The weather has been absolutely beautiful, couldn't ask for anything better.  Thank you to all our friends who have helped organize and offered to bring and/or brought tables for the sale.  They have made it a lot nicer!  Also, to my friend who has brought over not one but two meals for us to eat during the sale - THANK YOU!  You are a wonderful example, and I plan to set one corner of my freezer aside so I can have ready-made freezer meals prepared and ready to give to someone who needs one (or two!).

In His name,

Karen

REFERRAL!!!!

At 10:30 tonight I was on one of our phones talking to my mom when we got a call on my cell phone.  I didn't answer the cell because I didn't completely recognize the number, but suggested to Kevin that I thought it was the same area code that our adoption agency was from.  He was at the computer with Carissa and Tyler and quickly looked up the area code - and it was from the same state!  Rather abruptly (Sorry mom!  I was excited!), I hung up with my mom after telling her it was our agency calling.  While on my phone calling back our agency, Kevin's cell phone rang.  Kind-of in slow motion we all turned to see who was calling on his - our agency!  My belly was doing flip-flops by this time - why else would our agency be calling at 10:30 at night but to give us our referral???

We answered Kevin's phone and put it on speaker.  It was Nichole from Children's Hope.  She said she had just come back into the office to get a little bit of work done when she noticed there was a voice mail.  She checked it and got our good news!  Their contact in Colombia said they had a referral for us, but the oldest child was a little older than what we are approved for.  We are approved for up to 8 years and 11 months, but the oldest one is 9 years and 3 months.  Would that work for our family?  Nichole must have heard the cheers in the background from Carrissa, Tyler and Laurel.  They were really, really excited!  (They wanted us to adopt children who were their same ages, so they were really happy that the first child is 9 and not 8.)

So... the oldest child is 9.  I think that is wonderful.  That child will fit right in with Tyler and Laurel.  Want to know the ages of the other ones?  The next one is 6 years old.  Oh, my.  I love that age!  At times, I still think of Laurel as 6.  She will be 10 next month!  There's more...  the third child is 4!  Two 4 year olds?  Lyric, our daughter from China, is 4.  I think it would be great for her to have a sibling/playmate close in age to her.  I can just see them playing make-believe with the toy-kitchen.  We must not forget the last one!  Yup!  There is one more child that may by added to the Burgess family.  The last one is just an itty-bitty tyke at 2 years old!  Wow!  A 2 year old!  We are going to have A LOT of (busy!) fun in this house! 

Our family is going to be doing a lot of prayer over the weekend, but we are feeling really good about this referral.  At least about the ages.  We don't have any other information yet.  It feels like Colombia just let our agency give us a nibble of a freshly baked cookie instead of giving us all of it!  :)  We know the ages of the children, but we don't know if they are all boys, all girls, boy-girl-girl-boy, girl-girl-girl-boy, and so on... Ah, the suspense! 

Nichole said she would call or email her Colombian contact to ask if she could get any more information on the children, so that should be our next bit of news.  Other than that, we will have to get an update to our home study done.  We will need to be approved for up to 9 years old instead of 8.  Hopefully, it would be a quick process.  Oh, and if/when we do let Colombia know that it isn't an issue having a 9 year old instead of an 8 year old, we would soon be getting information on the children, including pictures!  One really good thing about adopting from Colombia - you get a lot of information on the children.

We would appreciate prayers for our family this weekend about our decision.  It's a big one that will have major effects on our family, including the children who were referred to us.  Prayers for them would be nice also.  Really, it isn't hard for me to imagine at all having 10 of us sitting around our dining room table.  If this sibling group is the one that God had planned to be a part of our family all along then Kevin and I would officially have 8 children.  They would be 13, 12, 10 (in October), 9, 6, 4, 4, and 2!  Perfect.

In His name,

Karen

WE WERE APPROVED!!!!

We just got a call from Nichole from Children's Hope - WE WERE APPROVED!!!  Wahoo!!  Kevin and I were a little nervous.  Nichole called and left a message for us to call her.  We called her right back but she was already in a meeting.  Sneaky, bad thoughts soon started to enter our minds (well, they did mine).  Were we approved?  Do they need more information?   And the worst - could we of been denied????  Bad, bad thoughts.  About a 1/2 hour later she called back and gave us the good news :)  Why did I ever let those thoughts into my head?

So what happens now?  Nichole emailed their representative in Colombia to see if our dossier was already sent to a region.  Once it is in a region, they will review our file to see if there are any children available who could be referred to us based on our dossier.  If there are - we get our referral!  Once that happens, it takes about 2 months for all the paperwork to get done so we can travel.

It is still possible for us to travel by the end of the year.  We would have to be in Colombia by about Nov. 20th in order to get the adoption completed in 2011.  If not, we might have to wait until January to travel.  Funny, we traveled on Thanksgiving day in 2010 to get Lyric in China - could it be that we travel Thanksgiving weekend to get the newest members of our family???  Whenever we get our children, it will be with God's perfect timing.

Praising our Lord!

Karen

Nesting - big time!

It would be a bit embarrassing to have anyone over to our house right now.  Really.  I'm not the cleanest wife in the world nor was I the cleanest daughter in the world when I was living at home!  But looking around me right now... well... it's pretty bad.  I would take a picture to show you, but I think I'll wait until I get it looking at least half-way decent first! 

I am nesting.  A lot.  And to make matters worse, I'm one of those people who can only do 1 or 2 things half-way decent at a time.  (I should be preparing to teach the kids their home school lessons!)  Right now, it is decluttering the ENTIRE house for a fund-raising sale - and putting away food for the winter.  With the cleaning, I feel like yard sale season is tumbling towards me and is going to knock me down and keep on going before I ever get around to having our sale.  And with storing the garden produce, I feel like I'm a busy squirrel frantically gathering nuts for the winter so I won't have to think so hard about the menu after bringing home our new family members.

Today, as a labor of love because I would have just froze them, my oldest daughter and I canned 4 half-pints of pickled baby corn at the request of my husband... and my oldest daughter..., froze 4 bags of sliced zucchini, and made the preparations for canning zucchini relish tomorrow.  We also need to pick and can more dilly beans (I sure hope they are good!),  bake some sugar pie pumpkins in order to store the pumpkin puree, and at some point I still need to pick the basil and turn it into basil jelly...

And right now, I should be heading to bed.   My husband and I just finished sealing the grout on a small mudroom we tiled - in anticipation for the freezer chest that will be arriving tomorrow morning.  I'm actually really excited about the freezer chest.  Since I have gone on this "storing food for winter" kick, I have run out of freezer space.  My plan is to get a 1/4 or a 1/2 a side of beef to put in the freezer and then stuff the rest of the freezer full of homemade meals that I will lovingly serve on our new dishes. 

We have waited years and years to get new dishes (we just celebrated 15 years of marriage!).  For the past few years, our dishes haven't really matched.  And because I like the lightness and durability of them so much, I rescued my mom's old Corelle dishes from one of her yard sales and started using them for our own.  They aren't exactly... stylish, but they work great - which made me finally break down and order a set (different from my moms!) - with enough plates and bowls to go around for all of us, our new children, and any company we may have over. 

As it is so late and my mind is rambling a bit, I was thinking about putting some of the plates and bowls in drawers instead of the cupboard, which would make it easier for little hands to put the dishes away.  All I would have to do is find some other place for all the items in our junk drawer(s)!

Okay... before I tell too much embarrassing stuff about my lack of housecleaning skills I had better call it a night!  But first, I want to tell my husband how much I love him, how I thank God for him, and for the wonderful 15 years of marriage.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the next 15 years!  Thank you for working so hard for our family and for being a great dad!  I love you!  (And now I will go put the laundry away that is piled on our bed so you can go to sleep!)

Night'

Karen

In the meantime... what am I reading?

Last night Laurel, Lyric and I headed out to do some grocery shopping for the week (and Kevin's birthday!).  I got to thinking that we hadn't visited Family Christian Bookstore in a while so we headed over there for a little bit first.  When I remember about it, I like to see what their $5.00 specials are for the DVD's, but this time we had all of them.  I did find something else that looked good but wasn't a $5.00 special, and so far it has been well worth the few extra dollars. 

Orphanology, written by Tony Merida and Rick Morton, tells about the many different, needed, ways in which we can get involved in caring for orphans.  The writers share their firsthand experiences with orphans and the adoption of children into their own family.  More importantly, they write that "Orphan care is more than just adoption.  At the heart of orphan care is grace.  Grace that flows from Christ's redemptive work on the Cross.  Grace that reconciles us with God.  Grace that we extend through the care of orphans and others."

I'm really looking forward to reading this book!  Today is a very busy day for us though, so I will have to put it aside until I can give it the attention that it deserves (and the quiet time!).  For now, I am off to bake a birthday cake, zucchini bread for our adoption support group picnic tonight, and our dinner!  In the garden, the baby corn is calling me to be picked, and the basil leaves are telling me they want me to try them out in basil jelly!  Busy day! 

When I finish the book, I'll be sure to post what I thought about it here!

Karen