Home Study

We are excited to say that our home study meetings have been completed. A home study is the process of a social worker being assigned to you, and meeting with you a total of 3 times to interview and get an overall impression of your family. We had to answer many personal questions, including our spouse's greatest fault, our finances, our methods of discipline. God blessed us with a very kind social worker that seemed to appreciate our family values. We met at her home office twice for interviews, and she came to our house once to meet the children, and assess our living conditions. She will be writing up our final home study and we're hoping for it to be completed within the next 2 weeks. Next we move on to working on our dossier, the collection of paperwork to be authenticated by our city, state, and Department of State before being sent to the Ethiopian government for approval. Please be praying that the Lord will graciously move our paperwork along quickly and efficiently. We're hoping to have a baby by Christmas.
I (Kelly) have begun reading "There is No Me Without You" and am learning so much about the history of Ethiopia, and the orphans there, as well as the plague of HIV that has overtaken the land. It is such a sad story, and a reminder to be thankful for all that we have. We have so much more than our basic needs being met. We are amazingly wealthy compared to the Ethiopian population, and yet we continue to chase our American dreams. Bigger homes, better cars, more in our 401k. Our church care group has been studying the book by Randy Alcorn, "The Treasure Principle", and we have sensed God wanting to change our priorities when it comes to our finances. We are praying that God would continue to give us direction, and that we would be faithful to what He calls us to do.