Lots of stuff

Okay, I have a couple of things to cover in this blog post. I will try to keep it as short as possible.

1. Jason leaves tomorrow for an 8 day mission trip to Haiti. He will be there with a group from our church that is building an orphanage in the city of Jeremie. Our church has been working on this project for several months. Orphans are due to arrive at the orphanage at the beginning of May, and the fellas are going to help get the orphanage and surrounding support buildings finished up. I am SO proud of my husband for going. He truly has a heart for orphan care. (Remember, HE was the one that came to me about adopting.) He is excited about this trip, and I know it is going to change is life forever. However, I am scared to death! He and I have never traveled without each other, ESPECIALLY for 8 days! To a third world country! (And "thank you" (insert sarcasm here) to the several folks who have told me that Americans are being killed in Haiti. I seriously could have handled NOT knowing that tid-bit of information.) So yes, I need you to pray for Jason to have safe travels, a productive trip, and to come home safely to me and our three precious babes. (Oh, and a prayer or two for me to remain half-way sane being a single mom for a week would be greatly appreciated.)

2. ADOPTION NEWS!!!! WAHOOO!!!! Okay, I got an email from our case worker late last night just checking in to see how we are doing, and to tell us we had moved up "the list" a bit. So OF COURSE I wanted to know exactly how much "a bit" is. She responded saying that there are now about 30 families with overlapping requests in front of us. (When we got on the list 2 and a half months ago their were 45 in front of us.) Now, remember that since we have such a broad range for our age request (9 months to 3 years), this gets kinda tricky. About 20 of the people in front of us are requesting 0 to 12 month olds. (So, if a 9 to 12 mo. old came through, they would get their referral. But they could also be contacted about a child younger, which would bump us up faster.) Only 10 people in front of us are requesting up to age 2. And there are only a COUPLE of people in front of us requesting up to age 3!!! WHOA! Her exact words were "This absolutely gives you the potential for faster process". So that's exciting!!! What's not-so-exciting is that the new law declaring Ethiopia to become a two-trip adoption country has been set in stone. Starting mid-May any family who has not been scheduled a court date (meaning they have received their referral and are awaiting the courts to declare the child theirs) will have to travel to be present for court, and then return 4 to 8 weeks later for their embassy appointment and to pick up their child. So looks like we will be making two trips to Africa to get our Macy. But it is what it is, and we aren't going to sulk about it. But we ARE going to have do some more fundraising. This second trip will add up to $5,000 (UGH!) to our expenses.

3. Which leads me to our third and last topic: YARD SALE!!!!!! Our yard sale is going to be Friday April 23rd and Saturday April 24th. WE NEED YOUR JUNK!!!!! We have ALL KINDS of stuff donated so far. Seriously, you name it, we've got it! But the more stuff means more $$$, so keep the donations coming! We can even come pick up your items if you need us to. Also, I am going to be doing another BAKE SALE along with this yard sale. Suprisingly, this was a HUGE SUCCESS last time. People made cookies, breads, pies, cakes - all kinds of yummy stuff. And people bought EVERY single bit of it. Seriously, there was nothing left over for me to take home and munch on. So if you would like to help us but don't know what you can do, BAKE US SOMETHING!!!

Hope you all have a great week! The kids and I have been outside everyday playing and enjoying their spring break from Mother's Day Out. It's hard to believe that this time next year I will have another one to chase around. I CANNOT WAIT!!!!