Help me help others...

Recently, I (Stuart) was approached with the opportunity to help out "Jerry's Kids." On December 11, 2008, I will be "locked up" to raise money for MDA. To make my stay as short and pleasant as possible, I need to raise bail money. So, please visit my website to bail me out:

https://www.joinmda.org/carmellockup2008/rogers11/

Note: This is an awesome end-of-year giving opportunity that should be tax-deductible for those of you looking to minimize your income tax liability. Give to Jerry's kids rather than Uncle Sam.

Thanks for your help.

Nothing new here

I realize I haven't updated in a while but honestly there's been nothing to report. All of our paperwork for our dossier has been corrected and approved by our agency. We are currently waiting for our I171H which is our approval from immigration. That should arrive anyday now. We are also waiting on a cover letter from our agency that we have to send away to get certified in Michigan. Once we have those two documents in hand, we will be able to send them to a courier in Washington DC who will get them certified at the Department of State and then authenticated at the Ethiopian Embassy. Then, we can officially say we're on the wait list. Thank goodness!!!
In other news, Stuart and I are finished with our Christmas shopping. Hooray. Thanks to a little planning ahead and finding good deals online, we finished about 6 weeks early (yes, that's right all you slackers out there, Christmas is in less than 6 weeks). It's amazing that as the years go by, buying for Cameron gets a little more expensive. This year, his major wish was a Nintendo DS. That's been the only thing that he has consistently asked for. So, I caved on the "no video game policy" for my kid and Santa is going to bring him a DS this year. We managed to buy one at a GameStop store that was used so we saved $30.00 on it. Talk about feeling old. I didn't even know how to turn the darn thing on.
Thanksgiving preparations are underway. This year we will be returning to Washington to celebrate with my side of the family. It should be a good time and there will be no less than 20 people gathering at my parent's house. It will be loud and hectic but absolutely wonderful. As usual, I can't wait to get my hands on my nieces and nephews. And as a special treat this year, we have some friends who we go to church with who are traveling with us down to Washington. Anyone who knows my parents, knows the sign that still hangs in our kitchen. It says "we always have room for one more." That will hold true this Thanksgiving and that makes me very thankful.

Do they speak Spanish in China?

Yep, that was the question that Cameron had for us last night. This came after we had dinner with some friends who are in the process of also adopting from Ethiopia. They have a little girl who was adopted from China and I was trying to explain to Cameron what adopted meant. The only question he had was "Do they speak Spanish in China?" So, maybe we'll have a bit more difficult time than we thought explaining this whole adoption thing to Cameron. Stuart and I have decided not to tell him because of his little enquiring mind. This is the same kid who had a countdown on for 90 days until he could start school. So, we can't imagine having to answer the same question day after day after day when there really is no definite timeline on when we get this baby. So, we will continue to gradually introduce the topic to him but the goal is to not really divulge a lot of information until referral day. As far as paperwork goes, we're still waiting (that seems to be a common theme doesn't it?). Once we have our I171H and our cover letter from our agency we'll be ready for the certification/authentication process. Then once we get that done, we're on the list. There will be a celebration when I don't have to carry around that manila folder under my arm everywhere I go.

Michael W. Smith

Okay, so those of you that have known me for any amount of time, know that my FAVORITE all time singer is Michael W. Smith. Well, he put a new cd out this week called "A New Hallelujah." It has no less than 3 of my favorite praise and worship songs on it. He apparently recorded it all live down in Houston with the African Children's Choir. You've got to check out this video.

http://www.reunionrecords.com/mws/radio_promo/

And yes, I cried when I was watching it. It's beautiful!!!

Rumor has it...

that the Obama family is looking for the new "First Pet."

May I suggest



Just kidding.

Have a great weekend.

Getting sooooo close.

I faxed in our dossier for review by our FTIA social worker this week. Yesterday we had a phone conference and she told me a few things that we needed to get fixed. There wasn't anything major we needed to do and I've done/requested most of those documents today. So, where do we go from here? Our homestudy is in the mail and I am expecting it today or tomorrow. We will take one copy of that to the Secretary of State for State Certification. We will take the other copy to the local CIS office and it will be added to our I600A application. Our social worker will forward us a cover letter that goes with our dossier and we have to send that to the state of Michigan for state certification (long story). Once we receive all of those documents, we will overnight them to a courier service in Washington DC who will then take them to the US Dept. of State for certification and then to the Ethiopian Embassy for authentication. They will then be overnighted back to us and we will then overnight them to FTIA. And then the waiting begins. Because we are requesting an infant so young, our wait time may be a little longer than other families that aren't requesting an infant. I don't anticipate a huge wait as we will be one of the first families from FTIA to submit our dossier. So, we're all go here. In other news, we've actually met a family who is in the same process with our agency AND they are building a house just about 2 miles south of us. We're having dinner with them next week. It made us feel so good that we will have people so close to us that we can share this experience with. That's all for now.

Thankful

This morning as I write this, our country is casting its vote for the newest leader of our great nation. No matter what political party/candidate you lean toward, there is no doubt that everyone is a little on edge about this election. When my alarm went off this morning a little after 5 a.m. so I could go stand in the world's longest line to cast my vote, I was less than happy to be dragging myself out of my nice warm bed. Then I remembered how thankful I should be that I live in a country that allows us to choose (in a round-about way) who our leader is. Many men and women have fought throughout the years so that we as Americans can maintain that right. So, instead of being annoyed that I arrived 15 minutes before the polls opened and still waited over an hour in line, I am thankful that I indeed have that right.
When I arrived at work this morning I had an email from a friend and I want to share some of that with you. These are the Top 10 predictions no matter who wins the election.

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
2. Prayer will still work.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross.
9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost when they come to Him.

God approves this message.

It is great to know who really is in charge. Let us all rest in the peace and grace that God shows us daily and not worry about the future. It's in His hands.