Africa at Night

Both Hands Project!!!!!

Well we are done with our Both Hands Project! We had an amazing amazing day!

Stephen and I got up and moving around 6am. Packing up all the supplies and tools that we would need for the day, getting the kids ready and attempting to scarf down some breakfast before we headed out the door. We dropped Bethany off with with the girls that came out to watch all the babies for us.

(Thanks Crystalee and Kirk girls!!!)

Then we headed over to Ione's house to meet up with the rest of our team. And in always consistent Schoolfield fashion, we were late=) But our wonderful friends expected as much and were there and ready to work when we showed up. Now for those friends of our that don't live in TN, November the 6th was a very very cold morning! We were all dressed in multiple layers because there was a lot of work outside to be done. Once everyone got there Stephen prayed over the day and then we got to work. The guys spent the entire day outside working HARD! I'm sure I'll miss lots of things they did but here is a small list

Trimmed trees near the house
Mowed the entire yard (and it's a lot of land)

Chopped her a huge stack of wood for this winter

Pressure washed the house

Mulched the flower beds

Sprayed for weeds

Cleaned out her gutters
Cleaned up debris around the yard
Got 1/2 the porch roof done (this was very tedious work and we had 2 very skilled guys working all day on it!!)

Us girls got to do all the painting which just happened to be inside (warm) !!! So we shed a few layers and got to work. There were 7 of us and we worked all day painting trim, walls and doors.

About half the way through the day we were getting ready to eat lunch when we all noticed that it looked like rain! I was praying that it wouldn't start raining when I noticed that the rain seemed to be bouncing off my windshield? I stuck my hand out the window and pulled it back in and low and behold there was snow all over my hand! It probably snowed for 10 minutes but that didn't stop the work, we just pressed on and kept working.

Ione had told us she wouldn't be able to be there because she had to work. So we assumed that we wouldn't get to see her reaction to all the work. Around 6pm she came walking in the door to the surprise of us all! She was just beside herself at everything that we had been able to do. It was such a blessing to us to get to see how happy she was.
Our team finally called it a day when the sun went down and we were all out of daylight. Stephen and I can't begin to explain how blessed we were through this Both Hands Project! We have always loved our church family but when we saw how all of these families came out and gave up their entire Saturday to work in the bitter cold, words can't convey our thanks.

We want to thank Ione for allowing us to help get her house back into the condition her late husband wanted for her!

We also wanted to give a shout out to the Miller Family for coming out and being part of our team! Your help was greatly apperciated!

And last but certainly not least are all of you who gave or prayed for this project! You made this project possible and blessed Us, our new daughter, Ione and the rest of our team.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will be posting a video of the project here soon! So stay tuned=)

Until then please continue to be praying for our sweet little (A) and that our paperwork will be submitted to the Ethiopian Courts soon!!

1 Week In......

I spoke with Leah this earlier this week and was really hoping to hear different news but oh well....

The mail only goes out from Bethany to Ethiopia once a week on Fridays and I was REALLY hoping that we had got our acceptance paperwork there in time but it JUST missed the truck=(
I'm talking hours=(

So now we will have to wait till tomorrow(the 29th) to have our papers sent over, which just kind of puts us back a little. This may not seem like a big deal , but to me it is! So just praying that all of our other documents will fall into line once our paperwork gets there and we will be hearing about it all being submitted to court soon! I just hate knowing that our papers are just sitting on a desk doing nothing!

We celebrated Stephen's 29th birthday on Sunday and while eating his special birthday dinner we decided to try and come up with a name for our sweet little girl! The boys really had a good time as we got the baby book out and played with different names and seeing how we liked them. We are pretty sure we came up with it! We love the meaning and it's a very pretty name. But now we are praying about it, so for the time being we will just referr to her as D.
Now that the news of our daughter (D) has settled in we have started thinking through all the changes that will need to be made to have 2, 2 year olds in the house!
We have been trying to decide how we want to go about the bedding situation. Since D will be a little over 2 when she comes home and this is how she is used to sleeping in the orphanage, we have decided to keep her in a crib for a while. So that means that Bethany will either need to transition to a toddler bed or we will need a second crib for a short time. We moved the boys to toddler beds pretty early. But if we decide to do this we will have to do it right after we come back from court so that she will be well trained to stay in her bed at night. I'm assuming I'll be spending a lot of time with D and sleep issues so I want to make sure that I dont' have to work with Bethany also!

I also want to have Bethany potty trained by that time! We had the boys potty trained early so I know it's possible. We just need to get crackin!

One hard part for me will be that I'm going to stop nursing Bethany. I know it will be for the best, since I want to be able to devote my time to D just as I would a newborn.

There are so many other issues that we are working through now that we know the age of our sweet little D. Strollers, Carseats, clothing and on and on and on. For all intent and purpose we will have twins...so there is a lot of planning that we still need to do! But we are loving it and so excited.

Just as all my forum friends said this phase of waiting is MUCH harder! Rarely I go a day without crying and longing for the day I hold my sweet daughter in my arms. I know that day will be so happy for me but I also know that day will be very hard for her. So it's with bittersweetness that we wait. Waiting to hear news any news of her and progress with our case!

We also heard from our SW this morning that she is working hard on getting some more pictures for us. That makes this mommy's heart VERY VERY happy!! Unfortunately we can't post any pictures of D until she comes home so for now you'll have to take my word that she is BEAUTIFUL!

Papers are off!!!!

Well we have now had 2 days to let the news sink in and well.......................
we are sooo excited still !!! Today we met with our social worker (Leah) and finished all of the acceptance paperwork. She said she would overnight it to Grand Rapids (which is Bethany HQ). Once it gets there I'm not 100% sure what they need to do but mail only goes out to Ethiopia every Friday so I'm REALLY hoping that we will make it in this weeks bunch! So now we ........

WAIT

More waiting but now we will be waiting to hear that either the team in Ethiopia has secured her birth certificate (which we may not be informed of this step) or that our paperwork has been submitted to court. After that we will wait for the court system to appoint us a court date, which should be for about 4 weeks later. Then we book our tickets and we're on our way! So pray with us that all of our paperwork and her birth certificate will be pulled together quickly. This phase of waiting can be anywhere from 2-4 months. The Ethiopian courts just reopened several weeks ago so there is still somewhat of a backlog in the court system. But we are hoping that once we get submitted that the bottle neck will be all cleared up.

Yesterday we were talking with another family that we met on the adoption forum and they are going to meet their little girls. Well they offered to take pictures for us which we were REALLY excited about. But we just realized that our daughter is not at the same orphanage as theirs are. So we won't be getting any new pictures until we get an update which comes about once a month. This was a huge let down as the only picture we have of her she is really sad in, which doesn't help this mommy's heart=(

We are still in the planning mode for the Both Hands Project. We have 2 weeks and 1 day till the project! We have had several more families ask to help with the project! So now we have to organize the project and who is going to be doing what and supplies and everything else that is needed. We saw Ione at church on Wednesday and told her our good news and she was so sweet and excited for us! We can't wait to do this project. It's going to be soooo much fun!

Today was THE DAY!!!

What an amazing day today has been!
I was working on making some diapers today when my phone rang. But it wasn't just any ring it was the special ring I made just for my social worker. When I saw it was indeed her my heart just about stopped. Then for a split second I thought, " What if she's calling to tell me just some random news about paperwork or the seminar coming up?!" my next thought was "if this isn't the call I'm hoping it is I'm gonna be a mess!". So I answered and tried really hard to read her voice but I couldn't. But after a few seconds she asked me to sit down that she had some news for me! I KNEW WHAT THIS MEANS! Then she gave me the news we have been waiting to hear... we have been matched with a precious little 1 1/2 year old girl. My heart all about stopped at this point. I was really glad she told me to sit down because I'm not sure my legs would have remembered to hold me up at this point=) She then proceeded to tell me all kinds of information about this and that and what to do next and ya da ya da ya da ya da is all I heard. At the end of the phone call I kindly informed her that I hadn't heard a thing she told me and that she would have to repeat it all tomorrow. I'm sure she is used to this kind of reaction because she was like, "Yep that's totally normal!".

So I immediately called stephen (sobbing of course) and attempted to tell him what happened. Once I managed to form a sentence he was super excited and tried his best to console me through the phone. Meanwhile at our house the kids were looking at me as if I had just grown a second head. They had no idea why I was happy-go-lucky going to answer the phone and within seconds was a soppy mess of tears. But they tried their best to be sweet to me and came and rubbed my back and hugged on me. Even Bethany got into it and kept coming over to me and doing her fake cry and then smiling and walking away=)

Stephen and I got to talk just for a few minutes about everything and then we decided to hang up and go open our emails and see her picture for the first time!

What an AMAZING moment that was!!!!! This sweet girl who we have been praying, dreaming and waiting for right there before our eyes. It was one of those moments that will forever be etched into my heart.

After this I spent the next 5 hours on the phone with friends and family letting them know the good news and crying with each new phone call.
What an INCREDIBLE day this has been! And now we are off to do more paperwork, which I don't mind in the least! One giant step closer to bringing our sweet little girl home!

Mommy and Daddy love you

4 Months Waiting

Well here we are at 4 months waiting! We have very little news to report but are very hopeful that we won't be posting a 5 months waiting. Yet I also am attempting to not get my hopes too high.

We have been VERY busy this last month which has really helped time to fly by, which has been very nice! We are getting so very close to seeing our sweet baby's face for the first time. This is such a very exciting time in our adoption journey. All the work to get us to this point and it's so close!

Even though we haven't see her face yet everyone in our family talks about her as if she is already home. The kids talk about her constantly and are just if not more excited than we are!

Stephen and I pray everyday for her. I dream about her all the time. I even had a friend dream about her=) Now we are just attempting to get our house set up to welcome her home. That's all for now...but hoping to post better news soon!!!!!

Welcome!

We wanted to welcome anyone that is just checking out our blog for the first time, maybe due to a letter from a friend of yours or from us. We welcome you to go back to the beginning of our blog where we had just started on our adoption journey. We are so excited to be hosting a Both Hands Project and are SO very thankful for each person who is going to take part in it, in whatever way you can! We have some wonderful friends who will be making up our team.

Aaron and Bethany Sams
James and Devon Carrasco
Thomas and Crystal Shields
Steve and Nicole Wise
Bryce and Lisa Sykes
Preston and Kelcy Lee
Jonah and Emily Jackson
Valerie and Shannon Bogle

Without them this project would not be possible!!!
I'll be posting more about the project as we set into stone details of that day (Nov. 6th). If your curious about how the project works check it out here. If your interested in getting involved Our personal project page is here .
We very much covet your prayers as we work on this project and wait to be matched with our little girl soon! God Bless