Odds and Ends

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! D and I are still here in New Mexico and I really don’t want it to end. We’ve gone on some hikes, had fabulous food and just relaxed with my family. I am going to really try to savor these last couple of days of vacation. I’ll post some pics next week.

Before we left for vacation I stumbled across a blog post that I wanted to share. From what I can tell this family adopted a son from Ethiopia and then the mom went back when her sister adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia. She takes AMAZING photos and I just couldn’t stop looking at them. When you get to the middle of the post there is a photo of a boy running with all his might to meet her and get some crackers she was giving to the other children. It breaks my heart and I just sat there and sobbed. The photo is so powerful and in many ways speaks larger than any words could. Click HERE for the link to that particular post. She has posted other entries since then about her trip back to Ethiopia and those are also powerful.

I was in a Starbucks yesterday and noticed they have brought their RED products back for a while. If you buy coffee from Starbucks then please consider checking out the RED products. For every 1lb bag of coffee that is purchased they donate a $1 to the Global Fund, which helps people in Africa living with AIDS. They also have RED gift cards so if you go there frequently then you can just load the card and each time you use it money is donated as well.

I heard from our social worker last night that Gladney is done reviewing our home study and they are sending it back to our home study agency. That means we are VERY close to being able to send it to CIS for approval. We are so ready to be done with this first phase of the process. I am hopeful we will be able to send it to CIS soon.

Before I sign off I wanted to say Congrats to my new blogging friend, Sam. She recently got her court date for later this month and I am super excited for her. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Ethiopian adoption process, the courts there close in August for 2 months or so for the rainy season so it is great news she got a date for before the closure. I am hoping she passes the first time and can travel this summer to pick up her little girl. Congrats Sam!