EthiopiaKids Dinner Dancing at OneTrueMedia.com

Here is some video and pics from the dinner.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ethiopian Dinner

This weekend we had our Ethiopian dinner to help raise money for the Ethiopian Family Culture Camp we hold every summer. This is the second year and we are amazed that 200 people are interested in Ethiopian food and culture in our area. We have to turn people away because of the space and amount of food we can make. Since I was working it I have very little pictures but here is one families experience at the dinner. We had dancing, injera making (Abby helped to make it and is in these pictures) and of course the coffee ceremony! It was a great time of just celebrating the rich Ethiopian culture! I'll try and down load a video of the dancing later on.

Praise You In This Storm w/ Lyrics!!

Praising Him - No matter what is going on

It has taken me a long time to get to the point of praising Him in my current situation and maybe this post will give you an idea why this blog has been so sparatic. The last 6 months + has been very emotional for me and draining for me. And that is why it's been hard to Praise Him through it. I was so focused on me through it. Ok, let me give you some details.



This is a photo of my mother at my wedding which just so happens was 20 years ago
next month. My mother at my wedding was a radiantly beautiful person and the host of the party. She LOVES people and loves a good party so she was in her glory that night at the reception. She also is a person who has spent most of her life living for others being a mother of 6 children (which I'm #5), as any mother knows lots of sacrifice here like 6 hour swim meets, making costumes for dance recitals and many others; she took care of her mother when after her father died, she voluntered at a nursing home, made endless meals for others who were sick or recoverying in bed, and visited many people in the hospital.

So I wanted to give you that picture of who she was then and has been for so many years between then and now but life has pitched a curve ball towards my mother and she has spent the last 5-10 years suffering from Parkinson's. It was almost two years ago that I sat in a doctor's office and found out that my mother also has altzheimer's. These two dieases have been taking away the close relationship I've had with my mother and 6 months ago our family had to put her in a nursing home to help care for her. This has been a hard time for me as I am slowing grieving the wonderful relationship I've had with my mother and trying to figure out how to show my love to her in her current state. I've taking far to long to Praise Him in this storm because I was focused on my and my emotions. But I do praise Him!

Heritage!

We've taked a bunch this weekend about heritage. What it means to our family is not just american, scottish, germany, welsh, english and ethiopian. Our families heritage comes from all of those countries and it means to do some celebrating, eat some great food, lots of learning and making connections. I love that we live in a city that we can experience heritages. Some we are connected to and some we are learning and just enjoying cause I love other cultures. On the third annual trip to a Greek festival my oldest son turned to me while eating some yummy food and said, "Mom are we even Greek". My response was no but isn't it great to experience this and we didn't have to leave our city.

Though we love heritages and cultures and to learn new things our biggest connection we want to make for our children is to our heritage in the Lord's family. No matter what culture we come from or what nation, we all were created in God's image and if we've receive Christ as our saviour we are adopted into God's family and our heritage is in Him. We first and for most our children of God. I love to learn differences of people around the world but I long to make connections of us all that only God can do - to be brothers and sisters in Christ. No matter what nation, social status, economical status or age or anything. The one label that removes all other labels is to be a child of God. 1John 3:1 - "See how great is a love the Father has lavished on us that we would be called chilren of God and that is what we are!"

What is love?

God is Love and he shows His love to me through wonderful people like these! I love them all and more!

How great is the Love that the Father has lavished on us that we are the children of God. And that is what we are!

We got our FDL!

Today for the first time I learned what FDL stands for. A favorable decision letter is sent from Homeland Security when your case has been approved for you to bring a orphan (or orphans) onto the United States. This letter has changed names over the years and even though we'd done this before the process doesn't every stay the same over time.

We are excited to get this letter because now we are able to be matched with our daughter. So we are making progress but we also know that this could take some time to receive a referral. But today we will celebrate and thank God for taking us through this process!

It's out of our HANDS!

Literally, our adoption progress is now totally out of our hands. However, I would venture to say "was it ever really in our hands?" God has it all in His hands but there are things that we have to do along the way to make it happen and then we step a side. Monday we went and had our fingerprints taken for our Immigration approval of our daughter entering into this country. We need to have this letter before we can be matched with her. We will wait for the letter and then wait some more for our referral (to be matched with our child). I've turned a new leaf and decided that since I know we will be waiting for awhile, I'm going to look of ways to enjoy the wait! We will celebrate other families referrals and maybe the passing of every month in some way. Maybe we will buy things for our child or decorate rooms. Most importantly we will spend our time praying for her. I'll read books to prepare and we will try and learn more about Ethiopia and the way she may be used to living. We will talk about her and also just enjoy the time we have as a family of 6 now. So wait doesn't have to be a bad thing or a bad word. God has had many people wait in the Bible. So I'm determined to try and ENJOY the wait! Remind of this in . . . oh, let's say, NEXT WEEK!:)

Romans 15:5-

"Now may the God who gives comfort and strength in waiting

make you of the same mind with one another in harmony with Christ Jesus."

Abba Changes Everything!

Check out this fabulous article found in Christianity Today. Very powerful! Enjoy!

The Waiting Game!

So when you adopt it not too different than when you are carrying your child in your body. The ONLY difference is you have your child on your brain and in your heart but not in your body. When you are pregnant you haven't seen your child (now a days though the the ultra sounds are like a picture- i never had that technology) and you try and picture what they will look like.

When you are adopting it's so hard not to have your child(ren) on your mind ALL of the time. During the waiting process it's sooooo important to keep busy and do as much preparation because when you get "the call" and the ball starts rolling toward court and traveling your minds losses it and your can't think straight any more. So I've decided to start making a bucket list for the waiting process of things I should, need to do and want to do while waiting. Please feel free to give me ideas to add. WHO KNOWS HOW LONG IT WILL BE? It might need to be a GOOD long list.

THINGS TO DO WHILE WAITING!!
1. Fund Raising for the remaining expenses. - to be started soon
2. Watch the movie called???
3. Collect donations for our orphanage
4. Reread There's No You without Me by Melissa Fay Greene
5. Praying for current families in the referral process to bring home their children
6. Working hard on daily devotions and building my relationship with God - this should be #1
7. Learning more about Ethiopian Culture specifically celebrations for our ET Culture Camp
8. Make a list of things to look for a purchase for our family while in ET
9. Praying daily for our child(ren) and their birth family
10. Do fun things with our kids like day trips and trying new things
11. Work on cooking more ET food. I only know one dish so far and it's Americanized!
12. Get green coffee beans and roast them, grind them and make a good cup of coffee.
13. Have fun during the summer!!!!!!
Waiting is very frustrating, but is ALWAYS worth it.

Snow Day AGAIN!

We are off school for the 5th day this school year and we are to have 4-6 inches with possibly more. Some places may get 8 inches. So what should we do to keep us busy.

I'm thinking some baking, movie watching, game playing and sorry to say we have lots of laundry that I need help with. We have thank yous to write and maybe phone calls to reach out and touch someone. We will also go play outside and I will shovel the drive way.

So there is something else I'm doing today and that is praying my sister to town. She is due to get into the airport right in the heaviest part of this storm. I so want her to come in today but I really want her to be safe.

Who knows what the day will bring but I hope it helps with the "wait" for our daughter to join us. Maybe we will lay bets today on what month we could get our referral. No money of course.

Enough of the randomness on this post. Let it snow. Let it snow, Let it snow!

Get'n closer to my sister

Hi everyone!I am your guest blogger for today.My name is Abby. I am the 3rd kid in the Ewing family.I wanted to share about the numbers we are on the waiting list. I am so excited. On the girls list we are # 88!!!! We started out as # 100 and now we are 88! We are also on the siblings list in case God blesses us with two!We are # 34 on that list.I am so happy!I am looking forward to sharing a room with her because Asher shares a room with Caleb and I was jealous of them.I need someone in the room when I sleep because when I am alone I don't sleep good. I am also excited to play with her and teach her new stuff.

2011 a fresh start!

I love fresh starts. When you turn the calendar to a new month, when you put your feet on the floor to start a new day, and yes even starting a new year. I did a poor job of blogging in 2010 and I hope to use this fresh start in 2011 to make that better.

So as we start this year, I'm not one for resolutions but I do like to think of how I see 2011 unfolding and then watch what God will do in my life and our families. So my goal for this year is to document more of my anticipations, praying and goals and see what God will do in my life and the life of my family's. It's all his any ways. I also want to get back to journally more and having a consist prayer list.

One of the things I love about our adoption agency (All God's Chilren International), is that after you complete your paper work and start the "waiting" process they give you a waiting journal and encourage you to work on your relationship with God in the waiting process. I love that! Believe you me you can get so caught up in the process and walk away from the one whose in control because you try and take the control. I remembering this being a struggle the first time.

Anyway, to update on our process, today we got our appointment from the Homeland Security for our finger printing. We have to be finger printed so they can approve us to bring a child into this country. We will go downtown on Feb 4th for our appointment and then wait to receive our letter from the Homeland Security (FDL). We pray for our daughter (1-4yrs) in Ethiopia not knowing where she is or what her family circumstance will be or when we will even be introduced to her face and medical information. We will wait and love to live in our waiting and maybe do some blogging in the mean time!

Random picture cause I don't like to post without a picture.

Happy 12th Birthday, Caleb

Caleb, you are becoming quite the young man. We love seeing the ways you are growing and can't wait to spend another fun year with you. We love you! - Mom and Dad

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We are officially WAITING!!!

We got all of our paper work in and we are official waiting! Even though that is a funny thought cause aren't you waiting the minute you commit to adopt a child? Any way, we are on the list for girls - get this, at a whomping #100. Meaning 99 families are infront of us for a girl, but most of them are waiting for a girl 0-12 mos. Since are parameters are a girl 1-4 years maybe, just maybe our wait will be a bit shorter. Only time will tell and only God knows. I love our agency though. They have unbelievable communication and the even sent us a journal to keep focused on our relationship with God while we wait. I really think that is cool.

We also wait on a finger print appointment from the governement to get our approval from them to bring an orphan into the country. But I'm soooooo glad we are WAITING!!!! We will keep you posted of our numbers and what we do to pass the time as we wait!

Happyy 5th Birthday Asher! at OneTrueMedia.com

Can't believe you are 5 already! You have grown so fast! We are so glad we have a Asher in our family! We love you!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Comfort!

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This is how much son finds it. And it's been making me think. How do I find comfort? I need to always find my comfort in this...

2 Corinthians 1:3-5Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the Father of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God. For just as we share abundantly in sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

Pumpkin Farm Field Trip

I Hope preschool field trips and last month I was able to go on my 8th trip to a pumpkin farm. It was so much fun and a perfect day with my little guy!

Pumpkin Wrestling

Now that's a Big Wheel!

Friends

Fun day with Mom and Asher!

Found the perfect one!

Soccer Tournament Fun!

It was a beautiful night for soccer last night in more ways than one. . .

After 80 minutes of play - Kings 1 Fairfield 0

Caroline plays for her HS team and has played for the JV team mst of the year. About three weeks ago she was asked to play with the varsity due to injuries. She has made the most of it and had some good playing minutes. So we have played two tournament games and they are onto the sectional finals coming this Tuesday night were they will play the #1 team in the COUNTRY that happens to be not only in our city but in our bracket of the tournament.

Celebrating our big win at Chick-a-fila!

Fun to watch #23 to be announced before the game!

Something Missing???

We've decided that God is telling us that there is something missing in this photo... We believe it's a little girl (daughter and sister) from Ethiopia. YES, we are again on the adoption journey to bring home a little girl from Ethiopia. We are requesting a girl between the age of 1-4 years old. We are also open to a sibling group possibly twins, but we will see how God works in this journey. We have our first home study meeting tomorrow night and we have all the paper work except the home study ready to send into our agency. So we again will start the process of hurrying up to wait! Where we won't always see what is coming around the bend or over the next hill but we are ready to feel the breeze and trust God in this journey. We will keep you posted and take you along for the ride. So bucket your seat belts with us as we await the beginning of this ride!