He's From Ethiopia

Lunch with our friends from the movie theater
was a success.

We met our new friends at a

local authentic Ethiopian restaurant.

It was authentic.  No silverware.

The kids got along instantly.

Isaac and Emma Grace taught Lilly that the
"pancakes" were actually "injera". 

Daisy was a good sport.  She tried "injera" and "kik alicha".

The waitress insisted that this was "perfect for babies".  When Daisy tried it,

the waitress declared that Daisy was "very smart".

Then Daisy finished her Uncrustable.

Jesus was there.

At our table, and on the walls.

The kids made good use of the stage

and the ceremonial play area coffee area.

The guys were able to finish off most of the platters. 

And by "guys", I mean Issac.

Isaac paid the tab for his family.

It was a very cute moment.

Here's to new friends and family.

Enkutatash...

Happy Ethiopian New Years 2011!

(There aren't enough ways

to say "Thank You."

My cup overflows.....)

Updates and Such

Hey everybody,



Well, it's been a long time since we've chatted about our adoption, so I thought I'd keep you up to date. We've finally gotten through our home study (yay). And now it's time for the super serious part. During all these months that I've run Give1 I've had tons of time to learn about African adoption and culture and that's been so cool. I've definitely learned that when you adopt a child, you also adopt a culture, and that's what brought us to a bit of a pause. We always had planned on adopting a child from Ethiopia, and then when that was complete to adopt from Haiti. I've come to realize that there couldn't really be two more opposite cultures! The Haitian culture and adoption process is more in sync with our family. The reason we planned on adopting from Haiti later is because they have a policy that you must be 35 to adopt and we are not. There's some buzz in the air about that law being changed to 30, so we took a huge leap of faith and had our home study prepared for a Haitian adoption instead. Ok, and then the law did not change. And that's where we are now. With a prepared home study, bank account, and hearts... and we don't yet qualify. SO... I would love some prayers. For the Haitian law to change, which would allow so many more people to pursue Haitian adoption and find homes for those little ones. For our patience in the process. God is absolutely doing something here and I'm learning that I'm just not in control of it. I have no idea what's going to happen and peace constantly a little outside of my grasp.

{photos of Haiti by Baron Batch's creative nonprofit, 2nd Hand Images}

So that's our personal story. Now for some other Haitian news. Next week Give1: Haiti will open up. That was always part of the plan. Like I said, our adoption (whenever that may be)  is pretty well funded (thank you for all who have helped). I've been making custom artwork that still goes into the adoption fund for travel expenses and such, so if you'd like to keep supporting us, that's totally the way to do it. But we won't have that paypal button anymore. Right now we're looking for families adopting from Haiti. And since we don't have one yet I'll be blogging on behalf of our friend, Jen Hatmaker's HELP safe house project. I hope you'll join me next week in learning more about Haiti and it's adoption process. It's a beautiful culture, and I have so loved learning French and using more coconut, lime, and rum in my cooking adventures! :)

New Week, New Family

Hey Guys,

I'd like to introduce you to Debbie and Kevin. And I'd like to bring back something that we haven't done in a while, and let them tell their story because they can tell it far more beautifully than I can.



Kevin and I have always discussed adoption as something that we would desire to do sometime in our future. Kevin and I have had the strongest desire to be parents for over 2 years now.  This desire has caused us to pray much about what God's plan is for our family. We have always had such a deep desire to raise children to glorify and love the Lord.  There have been some medical issues that have thus far prevented us from having biological children. We have certainly felt at a loss for what to do many times over the past couple years. In November 2010, Kevin and I discussed what our next step in life should be. Adoption kept coming up in our conversations. We teach our youth group students 3 questions to ask themselves when they are facing a decision.  Those questions are, “Does this glorify God?, Does this make me look more like Jesus? And Does this help others see God’s truth?” We took our own advice and applied those same questions to our situation.  No matter how we examined adoption we kept seeing that it continually lined up with God’s truth in scripture. 

 As Christians, we all have our own adoption story. It is a beautiful story of how our loving God adopted us as his children. We are all adopted by Christ Jesus. We were orphans destined for death but Jesus chose us to be his children and he placed us in His family. Ephesians 1:5 says, “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” Oh, the beauty of the Gospel. Praise the Lord for the kind intention of his will! We greatly desire to adopt a child into our home and life just as Christ has done for us.  There are 143 million orphans in the world. Children who are designed and created in the image of God are left homeless and helpless. Kevin and I desire to make that number One Less! One less hurting. One less hungry.One less fatherless. One less unloved.  God will make us a family forever by grace!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PUG_wD43zc]

If you'd like to donate to the Weldons adoption, just click here. And then spread the word in any way you can because the only way we all get off the hook with giving a dollar is if alot of other people do it too! :)

Docica

Hey All!



Guess what?! We were just featured in Docica magazine! Now, I was pretty thrilled when asked about being included in this month's issue (mostly because it was a magazine, and that's super cool!), but I was delighted when the issue published and I got to read it. The article about us and our little community we've got going on here was great, but I'm here to tell you about a few more gems. You see, I'd never heard of Docica. Have you? It's a 'simple living magazine about real beauty'. That's how they describe themselves and it's just perfect. You've got to check them out. We're talking fashion, home decor, recipes, and features on beautiful real women. This month is the adoption issue and there are some great articles. There's even one about the Waymans, one of our families from way back. So go check it out and bookmark it. This is one I'll be keeping an eye on!

Cooking with Kelly

Well, I hope you all have remembered that leading up to this cooking project, I warned you that cooking isn't really my thing. I wasn't just being modest.

Let's deem cooking with Kelly project #1 a big.fat.fail :)

I wanted to start off with injera, the Ethiopian flatbread type food, because it's pretty much the staple of every meal. In Ethiopia, all other foods are served on top of this and you use it as the utensil, picking up your food with a piece of the injera. Injera is made of teff which is the smallest grain in the world; it takes about 150 teff seeds to equal the weight of a kernel of wheat.

I did a fair amount of research on different injera recipes. The one I fell in love with seems so impossible. It all starts with a 15 day sourdough starter, which you then need to transition to a teff starter, which you then have to use to actually make the injera. My chest is getting tight just thinking about it.

So I thought it would be a better idea to start off easy. When I say easy, I mean EASY. It's hard for me to wrap my head around a recipe being SO difficult and one that is SO easy to make the exact same thing. But I put my blinders on and went for it.

The ingredients I used include:

1/4 cup teff flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup water
a pinch of salt

Here's the reciepe itself:

1. Put the teff flour in the bottom of a mixing bowl, and sift in the all-purpose flour.

2. Slowly add the water, stirring to avoid lumps.

3. Put the batter aside for a day or more (up to three days) to allow it to ferment. In this time, your injera batter will start to bubble and acquire the slight tanginess for which it’s known. Note: If you find that your injera batter does not ferment on its own, try adding a teaspoon of yeast.

4. Stir in the salt.

5. Heat a nonstick pan or lightly oiled cast-iron skillet until a water
drop dances on the surface. Make sure the surface of the pan is smooth: Otherwise, your injera might fall apart when you try to remove it.

6. Coat the pan with a thin layer of batter. Injera should be thicker than a crêpe, but not as thick as a traditional pancake. It will rise slightly when it heats.

7. Cook until holes appear on the surface of the bread. Once the surface is dry, remove the bread from the pan and let it cool.

That was easy. Even for me. So I'm going to give myself a little bit of an out, though. I only let the mixture set for a day, because I procrastinated too much was too excited to try it out so I'm not sure I let it ferment long enough because there weren't a whole lot of bubbles. Also, there was this thin liquid over the surface of the mixture and the recipe didn't tell me what to do with that...so I stirred it all in. Okay, okay, you want to see the results, don't you? See, when I went to take a picture, I couldn't get the camera to work. And I wasn't at all sad about it because I thought that meant I just wouldn't have to share a picture with you all! My handy husband got it working though, so there goes my excuse. Here it is...don't laugh...



Oh gosh, I know, it looks nothing like the real deal. P.S. here's the real deal:



Here's the thing: it doesn't really taste that bad! Nick doesn't think it tastes like injera, mostly because he feels like the spongy-ness is what makes it injera. But hey, teff is bursting with nutrients like fiber, iron and calcium, so I ate some of it anyway.

Where do I go from here? Well, I think it's safe to say there's nowhere but up! I'm going to let my mixture ferment for a few more days and try again with the same mixture to figure out if that would have made such a huge difference. By next month, I will have attempted the super difficult injera recipe and can hopefully tell you whether it's worth the extra effort.

Buckle Up!

One of our adoption loans fell through yesterday.

It was a tough day.  But there have been other tough days...

The day we told friends and family about our plan, the emotional support was overwhelming.  However, many asked,
"How do you KNOW that this is God's calling?" 
It got to me.  
I woke my oldest daughter from her nap and drove her to the dollar theater to see Pooh Bear, something I would never normally do. 

It was raining. 

Hurricane Irene was passing over our heads.

It started raining really hard on the drive over, and I just cried while I drove. 
I was really, really scared. 
What if we were wrong? 

What if we were outside of "The Plan"? 

I begged God for a sign, or at least some comfort.

Soaked from the rain and still wiping tears from my eyes, I purchased tickets at the booth.  I turned to find my daughter staring face to face with a little boy. 
She whispered just loud enough for me to hear, "Mommy, is this my brother?"
I quickly apologized to the little boy's Mommy, explaining the adoption. 
She said It's okay... 
He's from Ethiopia. 
I was speechless.  I went to the popcorn stand and the woman fell in line behind me again.  We exchanged numbers, and she invited us to join her family for the Ethiopian New Year's dinner at a local Ethiopian restaurant in September. 

That day is today.

His rainbows are everywhere in our lives right now. 

We already built the boat.

Regarding the loan,  I want to share with you that it will be okay.  There is a better plan.  We are approved for a high interest loan via a Christian Credit Union, but I think there is a bigger plan in the works right now.  Our completed homestudy is set to be done this week, and at that point we may apply to several no-interest loans like Abba Fund.
I wanted to share with you once again that God Funds What He Favors. 
He has already given this family everything we need to believe that.  We are eligible for a $10,000 tax credit from the federal government, and an ADDITIONAL $6,000 from the state.  He has already made the provisions.  We just have to walk blindly towards that point. 
I got a few notes asking if this was the end. 
This is NOT the end. 
This is the beginning. 
This will teach us patience. 
If this small bump knocked us off the course, we would not make it through the trials that lie ahead either.  I am praying for friends right now who have a legally adopted child waiting for them in Ethiopia, and they cannot pick them up until the courts reopen from rainy season and paperwork debaucles are sorted out.  This is nothing.

People have asked me, "Now that you guys have made this announcement, what if you decide to back out of this?  What will you do?"
My husband and I have to laugh to ourselves.  We already have children in Africa.  We have not seen their faces, but this deal is already done.  To walk away now would break our hearts in the same manner it would if we left one of our biological children in Africa and returned home without them.  We are already parents to our unknown children.  We love them and yearn for them with a nonsensical passion. 

He's GOT this!

Walking the Talk

Danae and Kyle Johnson, our family this week, made an absolutely lovely video. But I thought it would be fun to get to know them more. So I asked Danae to connect me with some of her friends. Behind her back, I asked Danae’s friends, “What makes Kyle and Danae special?” Here is what they said:

They have more enthusiasm, energy, and desire to help others in their community and beyond than anyone else I have ever met.  Kyle and Danae are determined to share their life, love, and home with a child from Ethiopia and to make a difference in that child’s life.


Recently, they organized putting together Blessing Bags for children in Africa. Not only did their efforts result in 130 blessing bags, but it brought people together for such a great cause. Oh, and this was Danae’s way of celebrating her 30^th birthday! It was amazing, just like them.





They volunteer to help people, even strangers, all the time. In the fall, Danae volunteered at an event and helped package meals that were sent to the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.


They are dedicated and caring people. They approach everything with passion and good intentions. They'll be great parents with those characteristics.


I raise puppies that become service dogs or guide dogs. The first puppy I ever raised was graduating with his visually impaired, new owner, and it was really important for me to be there. But I had to be out of town the day of graduation. Danae and Kyle dropped all their plans, on Kyle’s birthday no less, and drove three hours away to attend the graduation in my place. They knew it was important for the dog's new owner to have someone there to support him. It meant the world to me that they were there to stand in for me. I know they had other things they could have done, but they chose to help me.


Danae and Kyle are the most giving couple I have ever met. They are continually thinking of others and what they can do to help those who suffer or are in need. They are truly kind and selfless.


A little over a year ago I received unexpected news that I needed to travel to New Mexico because my mom was sick. I didn't know how I was going to afford a last minute flight, much less the other expenses of my travel. I told Danae about my situation and within minutes she had called Kyle, they had decided that they would give me their frequent flyer miles, and had even looked up flight so that all I had to do was book the flight. It was amazing that they did this for me. They could have easily used those miles themselves, and probably ended up having to spend money later because they had given them away. The thing is, they are always doing things like this for people. They are constantly thinking of what they can do for their family, for their friends, or for strangers.

Danae has wanted to adopt a child her entire life. It's been a life-long dream. And nothing would please me more than to see this dream of hers fulfilled. They have educated themselves and done everything humanly possible to make the transition for their son as easy as possible. They have used that knowledge to educate their family and friends, so they know what to expect, too. Sometimes, the hardest things in life are also the most fulfilling.

Clearly, Danae and Kyle are walking the talk. I hope we can make a difference for them in the same way they have made a difference for so many other people, including their soon-to-be new son. Hit that red donate button and walk with them through this journey.

New Week, New Family.

Happy Sunday, everybody! One of the perks of this little gig is that I get to meet all kinds of cool people. Danae, our mama of the week, is one of the sweetest, most hard-working, sincere sweeties I've had the pleasure to meet on this journey. She and Kyle just seem like a ton of fun! I think you'll agree when you meet them. Now, every week we have a video and every week I tell you to go watch it. But this week you SO have to do it. I've watched it several times and end up looking like a fool laughing and crying at the same time. Repeatedly, y'all. It's not like I don't know what's about to happen and then there I go laugh-crying again. So go check it out (so I'm not totally alone in this) and donate and spread the word!

Let's Have a Garage Sale!

It’s almost time for Spring cleaning! And wouldn’t it be great if you could take all those garbage bags and boxes full of excess (that you finally realize you never did and still don’t need) and do something really great with it!? How about a good ol’ fashioned garage sale…for orphans?

We loved the idea when Jen Hatmaker suggested it in her recent blog post. So here’s the deal:

• We’re asking you to clean house. Start piling up all your previously loved items that you and your family have outgrown. Better yet, ask your friends for their stuff, too. (Remember, we're helping orphans. Don't by shy.)


• Next month, we want you to join us for a big Garage Sale for Orphans. We’ll tell you more about it soon…but it’ll be fabulous.


• All the money we raise will go to a really great organization called H.E.L.P. (Help Eliminate Local Poverty). Their mission is “To be a global tribe dedicated to ending extreme poverty by helping to rescue orphans, restore their hope and renew their communities.”

[caption id="attachment_1646" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is where 30 orphans lived in Port-au-Prince before H.E.L.P. partners built an orphanage."][/caption]

Our goal is to help Jen Hatmaker raise $6,000 to build a safe home in Haiti. This home will be built for orphans who are close to aging out of the system. Often, these orphans are exploited and targeted for sex and labor trafficking in the Dominican Republic. H.E.L.P. builds houses close to the Dominican border to help give these orphans a better future.

[caption id="attachment_1647" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Orphans in Haiti"][/caption]

As H.E.L.P. explains, “Each home will have an overseer, or house mom/dad, potentially a widow. We hope to create a family style orphan care. Our local leader in Haiti will oversee the entire project. The kids will be sponsored, so they will get food, water, clothing, and will also be able to attend school. Once we rescue a child, we will raise that child until they graduate college or trade school, so they can then take care of their own families."

Pretty great stuff. Even better, you can be confident that your financial support is actually going to help the kids. H.E.L.P. uses 85 percent of its donations for the actual work of providing these homes. (Just 15 percent is used to spread the word.)

So will you help us help H.E.L.P.? (Best sentence I've ever written.) Join us for a big Garage Sale for Orphans by clearing out the clutter in your house. With it, we can do some amazing things for kids in Haiti.

Stay tuned for details…better yet, subscribe to Give1Save1 via email so you don't miss any Give1 goodness!

 

Timing is...everything?

I'm a pretty punctual person. I get anxious when I'm running late and it's a rare occasion when I'm late to an appointment. The director of my clinical affiliations in grad school used to say, "to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is unacceptable." This statement still haunts me, ha. I never really think about how my perception of time turns me into a ball of stress. Until I lived and worked on Ethiopian time.

Ethiopian time is very different from our American time. No, literally, the time is different. I'm not just talking about time zone, either (which is EAT - Eastern Africa Time - and 10 hours ahead of my internal Mountain Standard Time clock). It is currently 2004 in Ethiopia (they're on the Julian calendar) and many Ethiopians go by a 12 hour clock with 1:00 - 12:00 being dawn until dusk. This means that when I think of it being 6:00 a.m. when I'm in Ethiopia, it's considered 12:00 to a lot of the locals. Therefore, it's pretty important when you're discussing plans to clarify "Ethiopian time" or "ferengi" (foreigner) time, otherwise, you'll find yourself six hours early...or worse, six hours late.

As with some other foreign countries, Ethiopia has another attitude towards time: it just doesn't matter all that much. Meet you at 10:00 a.m. (fereng time)? Great, I'll probably really see you closer to 12. You'll swing by my place on the way? See you an hour late. Know what that means for me? I get to sit and enjoy my macchiato (or two...or three) even longer :) It really was hard for me to try and let go of my normal uptight self and there were a few times I found myself frustrated about the lack of regard for timing. Nick had his first experience with this concept when we were meeting Yemamu at 8:30. When Our friend showed up at 10 ish we said, "We thought you would be here at 8:30!" His response came with a huge smile, "Yes 8:30! I am here!"

In another instance, we had a CT scan appointment for one of the babies named Adissa at the orphanage. We scheduled the appointment, pre-paid and were clearly instructed multiple times to NOT BE LATE. Do NOT be late. You will miss your appointment if you are late. Finally, someone who gets me! The morning started off badly when the person meeting us was running pretty late. We had hired a van driver in order to avoid delays on the public taxi system. Let's just say our mode of transportation left much to be desired:

[caption id="attachment_1655" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="yes, that is the van door. yes, you use a string (requiring multiple attempts) to both open and close said sliding door. safety at it's finest"][/caption]

We arrived to the orphanage late. We had high expectations for the day: I was taking Addisa for her CT scan with our friend Yemamu while another therapist, Keely, was headed with Misfin, Alex and one other friend to take a few other kids to the hospital. Being late to begin with made the fact that the orphanage had no diapers even more of a big deal. Now, I don't have children yet, but I think it's time consuming to get my dog ready to leave the house. So gathering necessary items for four children, including bottles with formula, change of clothes, blankets, coats (yes, some children wear coats in the middle of the summer in Ethiopia) and one of the important things: diapers. Plenty of them. What do you do in that situation? When you are already running late, may likely miss the CT scan appointment and therefore leaving us helpless to figure out what is going on with Addisa? You take some onesies, you wrap them around a child's bottom, secure them as best as possible and pray for no explosions. Yep, we did that.

What can I say? We made it to the CT scan. An hour and a half late. And you know what? Nobody said a word about it. Nothing. No mention of being an hour and a half late. We got right in. My front office calls patients for me when they are 10 minutes late. But you know what? Life happens, and sometimes we're late. And I appreciate a culture that understands and accepts that.

[caption id="attachment_1656" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="van ride with elshaday, addisa and yordi. bottles, but no diapers."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1658" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Addisa after anesthesia"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1657" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="I was like a nervous parent waiting for Addisa during her CT scan"][/caption]

Whatever time it is in your neck of the woods now, it's a good time to go donate to the Kulenkamp family to help them bring their babes home.

Paper Pregnancy

All of the symptoms are there. 
My adoption gurus had told me that there would be something like a pregnancy that takes over your brain during the dossier process. 
So true.  I can barely think straight. 
Why does this happen?  Because of this this..
Appeasing all of the governmental agencies with the required paperwork is
on par with natural childbirth.  I've now done both. 
I would be hard pressed to pick the fiercer competitor. 
One is fast and furious.  One is slow and painful. 

A particular piece of paper is causing a lot of problems.  USCIS requires backup documentation for the background check. 
For almost two weeks, I called every half hour.  It did not look good:
"Ma'am, what you are asking for does not exist.  It is impossible."
"Ma'am, you would be better off getting an audience with the governor and asking him to talk to my supervisor's supervisor. 
It would be faster than me getting that far."
"Ma'am, the Attorney General himself could come down here and tell us to provide that letter, and we still would not do it."
I was very nice.  I just kept asking for the next supervisor. 

A few times, I would hit a wall:
"Ma'am, I AM the supervisor."  (PopCopy, anyone?)

Late one afternoon, with low bloodsugar pumping, I just pressed random buttons on the automated prompter until I got an unknown person's voicemail.  I had no idea whose.
And I lost it. 
I was still very nice, but about halfway through explaining the request for the 300th time, I started to cry.  On a message machine. 
I hung up quickly and said a prayer.  I decided to take a break. 
The next morning, I was up before dawn. I examined my exhausted list of contacts at the clerks office and then settled in for more prayer.  I got low. 
I decided that today, God was going to help me.  He had already gotten me this far, and He has never abandoned me in my life.  I prepped myself for battle and ran 3 miles with Jennifer Knapp as loud as I could get her.
The phone rang early. 
A woman named Deborah called and explained that she was calling to solve my paperwork problem, and that she was going to personally handle the situation.  The impossible letter would be in the mail today.  Her voice was one of the kindest I had ever heard. 
She was the recipient of my sobbing phone call the day before. 
Somehow, I had randomly pressed the right buttons to get to
the actual Clerk of Court's Administrative Assistant.
God reminds me every day that these battles are not mine to fight.  He is doing all of the work, pressing all of the "random buttons".  I have to remember this.  Anyone who is adopting has to remember this.  It's a divine calling, and He's got this under control.

See you Tuesday!

I'll be taking another unplugged weekend.

(To smell the roses and such.)

Shop for a Cause

Happy Valentine's Day, you guys! I'm in love with some stinking adorable adoption fundraiser necklaces. Have you guys seen these?

This one is my fave, I think. Very Valentine-y.



But these are cute too.







If you'd like to support another adoption, then head on over here and buy one. That is after you give to the family of the week, the Kulenkamps. You did that, right?  And you know, with it being Valentine's Day and all, a really awesome way to express love is to support an orphan (well two, actually) in someone else's name. If you need something cute for a last minute gift, just donate to the Kulenkamps to clear your conscience and then right click this cute little image and email away. Or facebook or whatever you do.

New Week, New Family

Hey Hey Everybody!

It's that time again. We have an opportunity presented on a shiny platter. There's a couple of orphans and a sweet family that need a little financial peace, and with the resources that God has entrusted to each of us, we have the privilege to relieve a burden. Let's do that, shall we?



Say hi to the Kulenkamps. Bonnie and Kyle adopted their little girl from Africa in 2010 and now they're headed back so that she can be a big sister to two twin littles!  You know what to do! Donate and then check out their video. Or the other way around. Whatever floats your boat.

I'm so excited to see what God does through us for this sweet family! Let's make it BIG! Spread the word, peeps!

Blessed and Lucky

I was watching the Jensen family’s video to find inspiration for my blog post this week. Amidst Natalie Merchant’s (or was it 10,000 Maniacs?) “These Are Days”, my eyes were welling up at the sheer beauty of this family. First there were four kids…then three more…and now they’re going to add FIVE more siblings…for a grand total of 12 kids. By my math, that is 12 kids to feed, 12 kids to clothe, 12 beds to make, at least 12 annual doctor visits, etc...

Overwhelming? Gosh, yes.

But that’s also 12 kids to hug before school each morning. 12 sets of eyes from which to witness the magic of Christmas. 12 birthdays to celebrate. 12 lives to witness and nurture. 12 gifts to love. 12 reasons to make life immeasurably richer.

Imagine how different those 12 lives would have been if the Jensens didn’t know how blessed and lucky they were...blessed enough to give more and more of themselves to create such an amazing family.

 

If you’re feeling blessed or lucky or just in a giving mood today, please bless the Jensens by hitting that red donate button.

Enjoy the blessings of your weekend. - Lindsay