Post from AW Blog

Ethiopia Updates
July 31, 2008
Recent Referrals for Ethiopia
America World received 10 referrals of children between the ages of 0-5 years for the month of July from Ethiopia. Below are the DTE of the families who received referrals this month:
Referrals on July 21, 2008DTE: 11/21/07- Infant Boy 12/7/07- Infant Boy 12/7/08- Infant Boy 12/21/07- Infant Boy 1/25/08- Infant Boy 1/25/08- Infant Boy
Referrals on July 29, 2008DTE: 1/25/08- Infant Boy 10/19/07- Infant Girl
Based on the new referrals, the wait time for an infant boy is 5-7 months while the wait time for an infant or toddler girl is 7-9 months. The wait time for siblings under 7 is 5-9 months.

This is great news in that we are either (probably infant boy) and siblings as well, COME ON REFERRALS!!!! :):) I am starting to get very excitted!!

Birthdays ~ Family ~ & Coke cans

So, once again, I'm behind. I check my YG everyday and I read lots of other blogs everyday but to get to my blog everyday ... just isn't happening! So the first photo is of the family at the park with Monica and Steve on their first trip home from the heart hospital since April. It was great to see them and get to spend some time with them with the entire family. They have also been released from the Dr. to be able to come home and go to work so ~ we will see how things go at first before they make any more decisions. He still does not qualify for a heart trans. at this point but can be on the heart pump indefinitely if need be so, once again, taking it one day at a time. They are trying to get home and go from there!

"Vanna just turned 15 this last weekend and hence the photo of "some" of them just talking on the stairs. It was a good (LONG ~ SLEEPLESS) weekend - Oh to be young again! There was BBQ, movies, bowling, water, mall shopping, and food (and food, and food!) Who says teen-age girls don't like to eat? They require lots of food to giggle so much!!

AND ALAS ~ I told you I would find ET Coke-cola cans!! "Vanna and I had been checking all the stores when we go anywhere and found one at a gas station!! Yea!! I wish it was more close-up but hey, can mess with that later. It was fun to find the cans!

Adoption ~ Hmmm! Three families have passed court this last week and are leaving on the 8th of Aug. to go get their kiddos!! There are 4 families that are praying to pass today and then they could travel later in Aug. The more the merrier! So good to see them be able to go get their kids and not have to wait till courts re-open in Oct. We are hoping still for Sept. but ... waiting on the Lords timing. I have emailed with our coordinator (while she was in ET) and she is fully aware of our situation and seems to be positive with our expectations. I do know of 1 family that declined a ref. because it was for 1 infant and they totally feel led to have 2 ~ OK Lord, give me the strength to follow and not act on my emotions at the time. Also, please be praying for the families waiting for girls ~ they are Oct. families and the waiting is getting LONG!! I have a friend that is waiting for a toddler ref. from Oct. as well, pray for paperwork to progress and that the families would be matched as God already has them planned!!!

5 months and about 18 !!!!

Well, I really wanted to have a picture of us with the new Olympic coca cola Ethiopian can but ... I purchased 4 for $10 and then opened them to get out 5 for our photo and they are all the same!! So I have now oped all 4 12 packs and have 1 USA and 3 Thailand! I can not believe they are not assorted! So, if you know me very well, you know I do not give up easy. I have now been to 3 grocery stores, popping in the handle portion on the package and looking through them for Ethiopia!! Yep, that's me in the isles stacking all the coke up and caring that people are walking by wondering "what in the world"? Hey, I got this idea in my head so gotta figure it out. I am actually thinking that I will be heading to our local coke plant and seeing if I can just buy from them there. (I know, some you smart people already thought of that in the beginning!) So for now I am posting a picture of the 5 of us as we are now ~ can't wait for there to be more!! It has been 5 months of waiting and actually we are about # 18 in line for referral ~ I can't believe that we are actually in the teens!! Now if you break it down by requests we about #9 for either gender (pretty sure we would get a boy) and for siblings we are about # 5 or 6!!!! I am staring to think this is really going to happen!!! Now the courts will be closing in about 3 weeks till the 2 week of October so even if we do get our referral say Sept. or Oct. the courts will be back logged and we have to pass court before we can even travel ~ meaning it could be January or February before we are able to bring them home. We just ask that you keep praying and that we will be at peace with "HIS will!!'

There are many families trying to pass court right now before the closure and our Ethiopian coordinator, Duni, is in ET right now doing all she can to get as many as possible through the system. PLEASE pray for them as they obviously do no want to have to look at a picture all summer and not have there children with them.

God is good and we are praising HIM !!!

Steve & Monica

FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008 09:33 AM, CDT
"HE FASHIONS HEARTS INDIVIDUALLY" Psalm 33:15
As I was sitting next to my sweet husband in church last weekend, we were praying about healing. It was a phenomenal healing service. Pastor Wendell from Seattle is a powerful evangelist. God gave Steve a "word" (or 3 if you are counting). "THERE IS MORE". He wrote it down at the top of his notebook. We didn't understand the full impact of those words until yesterday. James 5 : 14-15 "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up"Steve and I always pray for discernment and wisdom. Even more since we have had some major decisions to make. Many times in conversation, we have both stated that we didn't feel that God was leading us to a transplant, at least not right now. We both wanted to be sure that this wasn't just our living in fear of a major open heart surgery. So in my prayer time with God, I asked him to take away any fear that the enemy might try to throw at us and allow us to have a clear word from HIM. We had not met with our surgeon since we were released from the hospital. Every week, we meet with the mechanical heart engineers. They mentioned several times that the goal was to get the pulmonary pressures tested and as soon as they are down, get Steve on the transplant list. Steve and I would leave and talk about how we felt that we needed to not rush into that. For me, it might have been a bit of selfishness, in that, I wanted for us to get home to Boise so we could get back to some normalcy, and spend time with Trevor, and regroup before we headed into yet another major surgery. Was this God's will, or Monica's will?? I really needed to pray hard about this because I didn't want to leave a minute too soon to be sure that Steve had recovered enough to really go home. Our answer came yesterday, as we sat in the office with Dr. Icenogle. The first words to come out of his mouth were "So, when are you going to go home and go back to work?" He is very happy with how well Steve is doing. (we are at the gym nearly every day). He went on to say that we need to get his pulmonary pressures checked (the plan is to do that is Sept). The next sentence was hard to hear... "With the type of antibodies that you have, and because of the way your body responded to the transfusions that you had during and after surgery, the chances of us transplanting you is 3%." We sat in silence for a few minutes just trying to soak all of it in. He went on to explain all of it, and how we could try to "wash" Steve's blood, but there's a huge possibility that the "memory" in his cells will again react negatively. 3%.... well.... I guess the morning that Peter woke up before he met Jesus outside of the boat and walked on water... he probably would have thought he had a 0% chance of that happening. But, it happened. It wasn't until Peter started looking around at the storm around him that he started to sink. The lesson in that, is that we have to keep focused on HIM. They tell us that the heart pump can last for around 3 - 5 years, and it can be replaced. The blessing in this is..... had we gone ahead with a transplant a month and 1/2 ago, his body would most likely have rejected the heart. Thank You God!!! The other blessing is that... our surgeon and the 2 engineers who were in the room with us yesterday are all believers. Dr. Ice says, we just have to keep praying. In our devotions we read about a woman in a nursing home who asked a visiting pastor to pray for her. She then asked the pastor "would you help me out of this wheelchair?" He was startled, but he did as she asked. She took a few steps and then started running and jumping till the whole building heard her. Later in his car the pastor looked up and said, "Lord, don't ever do that to me again!" The Bible says, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick." So, why are we surprised when HE does? Thank you for your continued prayers. We get to go home soon... and be with Trevor, and our church, and our own bed. God answers prayers. We don't understand where He is taking us sometimes, but "BLESS THE LORD, OH MY SOUL"... He NEVER leaves us!!! And we all know that: "THERE IS MORE"!!Be Blessed,Love Coach and Mon

Well, above is the email from Monica today. Good news they are coming home right? I just can't help but feel emotional for them right now, I'm not sure exactly why. Healing is happening with Steve and we are all glad that he will be home and they will have some sort of "normalcy" as they say; so why the sadness? I guess I was just praying for complete healing meaning a transplant and yet why do I think he is any thing but complete now? If our Lord says he is complete as is then who am I to question?! So, I guess we are moving on and going to be welcoming them home soon! We love you guys and have missed you!

I also want to ask for prayers for our kiddos in ET. We have no information on them, we have never met them, we have never seen them but oh how my heart is hurting for them so much right now. I don't know the circumstances but please just pray (as for all the "least of these"). We are hoping to be hearing something in Sept. or maybe Oct. We will of course let you know ASAP!!!

Saubi ~ Church Camp

Well, It's official! Her first time at camp for a week and without mom! Here is Saubriannah with her best friend on the first day of camp right after check-in. She was a little nervous at first and then we got there and with over 200 3,4,and5 graders she was thrilled. (Mom, was OK :( Happy to be seeing her grow into a young lady learning more of our Lord and yet, Where is my little girl? So just had to put in a note for this event in her life!

Still in the "waiting line" for our ET kiddos. We have booth at our local town carnival this week-end to sell some baby blankets hopefully and so will let you know how that goes as well. AND Monica and Steve will be here for 2 days! This is the first time he has been away from the Dr. in Spokane and we are very excited to see them both. The kids will be very happy to be able to see them and touch them and really know that Steve is doing OK. It has been since this all began in April since they have seen him so we are excited to get to spend some time with them ~ and cousin Trevor!!

4th of July Week~End

Well, it was a few days of fun and work! We went to lay some concrete work in front of this cabin and yep, that part was definately work! It was the reason that we got to go though, so worth it! Got away for about 4 days with-out my husband's cell phone working ... those of you who know his cell phone you know how happy I was!!! :):) THEY got play in the river some (it was pretty cold so I was on shore!). We had fun at a local swimming pool and just so you know this was not like camping! We stayed in a log motel with a kitchenette and the pool was at a gold resort. Pretty cool considering the little "town" it is in is like stepping back in time! I did go on the river rafting trip and we had a BLAST!! It was great family time! Saubi got to steer for a minute and Isaiah had his own Yahoo-strap to hold on too!! Just a photo of us all afterwards cause you know, no camera on the rafting boat! :):)

4th of July 2008

Fourth of July: We were out of town for a work/family week end this year! There was a great fireworks display and yet I was so reminded of the "hero's" that provide this freedom for us! We have a great and wonderful friend who is currently on his second tour there and I could not help but think of him continually as the fireworks were going off. So Thank you to all before you (my husband included!) and to you now for standing firm for our country! We love you and miss you! Be safe!!

It also made me think and wonder as my kids were loving them and in awe what would next bring at this time? Our kids from ET will not know this tradition and really not a connection with it (for a while anyway). What will "As American as apple pie" mean to them? Probably nothing, and what does it mean to us anyway?? :):) I just want them to feel safe and loved and know that we are all a part of our Lord and Savior's family! There could be nothing greater!

America World Blog

Ethiopia Updates
June 27, 2008
Ethiopia Program
10 referrals of children ranging from 0-10 were made in the month of June.
The family who recently received an infant girl referral had a DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) of October 15 2007.The family who recently received an infant boy referral had a DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) of November 21 2007.
Based on the new referrals the wait time for an infant girl and infant boy as well as toddlers is currently 7-9 months.
32 children have come home with their adoptive families in 2008. America World families have received 35 referrals since January of this year. 7 of these children were from the Waiting Children list.