A World of Magic

I got a call last weekend that blew me away. One of my good friends invited my family to Disney World for a few days. Sean and I have talked about Disney before, but didn't have it in the budget anytime soon and now with the adoption, we thought it would be a few more years. Grace and Thatcher are at a "magical" age, but I thought it would just have to wait. Any extra finances are going toward adoption costs and baby items.

What an answer to prayer. My kids and I flew out on Monday and enjoyed Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Sean joined us Wed. night and got to go to Magic Kingdom with us our last day. I tell you what- it was magical for all of us. A dream come true. A fairytale! You get the jist! Grace got to meet Belle and my friend bought her a beautiful Belle dress. She looked like a princess herself and was glowing. Thatcher loved meeting Buzz Lightyear and all the Pooh characters.

Sweet friend, if you read this, please know how thankful we are, and for the rest of you, I just want to say that God is good and rewards us when we least expect it.

Dakota

Well, we found out last week that our sweet Golden Retriever, Dakota, has cancer. She is 9 years old and has had a very healthy and happy life. I was petting her last week and felt her lymph glands on her neck and they were very enlarged. I was hoping for the best when I took her in, but I had a sinking feeling. Sure enough, all of her lymph nodes/glands were enlarged and she was diagnosed with Lymphoma. My poor baby. She was my baby long before Grace and Thatcer came along. It will be very hard to see her go. She has been THE perfect pet, other than shedding, and she just couldn't have been sweeter or more gentle with the kids. The doctor said it won't take long, and that steroids will mask her symptoms and make her comfortable for awhile. In the meantime, her breathing is becoming a little more labored. At the first serious signs of her illness, we will take her in so that she's not in pain and so that we don't have to watch her suffer. Even now, it makes me cry. She will be missed!

Orphans

I copied these stats on Ethiopia's children from another blog I read: http://scottvair.typepad.com/aheartfororphans/ This is Scott Vair's blog, who is a leader of the World Orphans ministry. This is where our little children will be coming from...

These stats are from the ISN Security Watch:

Extreme poverty continues to plague the land, with an average annual per capita income at less than US$100 and life expectancy just 46 years of age.

One out of ten children die before reaching their first birthday, and one out of six die before the age of five.

Only 11 per cent of the population in urban Ethiopia have access to clean drinking water, leaving nine out of ten children to drink unsafe surface water.

Dr. Bulti Gutema, representing the Labor and Social Ministry, told a government and UN initiative…that there were currently 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia - 11 per cent of the country’s child population - and that 12 per cent of them are believed to have HIV/AIDS.The situation is deteriorating and experts predict that by 2010, 43 per cent of the country’s children could be orphans.

Over half of the population reported to be under the age of 18. 18 per cent of households are taking care of orphans, while 6.1 per cent of AIDS orphans are forced to beg in order to survive.

Compounding matters, the UN has also reported that child trafficking still continues unabated despite measures to combat the exploitation of children.

According to a recent UNICEF report, child labor and child prostitution continue to be major problems, as the level of poverty in Ethiopia is so absolute that many families simply cannot support their own children or take on relatives’ children whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS or other illnesses.

Internally, Ethiopian children are sold for as little as US$1.20 to work as domestic workers or prostitutes.

Most of the information we have from the IOM [International Organization for Migration] is of "young girls being trafficked to the Middle East,” UNICEF spokesman Indrias Getacheu in Addis Ababa told ISN Security Watch. “Young girls think that they will make a lot of money and are promised a good job. But when they get there they find that they don’t have any protection, they don’t have any legal status and they end up in a situation of bondage.”

According to the IOM, up to 20,000 children are sold each year by their parents and trafficked by brokers to work in cities across the country.The IOM estimates that 12,000 to 14,000 Ethiopian women are working in Lebanon, mostly in domestic service.“The parents are often deceived with promises of money or that the child will be educated…traffickers pay around 10 to 20 Ethiopian birr [US$1.20 to US$2.40] for each child. We are talking about thousands of children each year.”According to the IOM, trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world; it is believed to net those involved around US$10 billion a year.

Yes, there are problems here in America, and we continue to lift those up to the Lord, but this also weighs heavy on our hearts. It is so rewarding to know that we can bring two of these little orphans home and "save" them from these statistics.

Ps. 127:3-5 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord.... Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them....

SIBLINGS

Well, as some of you know, we've been praying about whether or not to change our request to siblings. We believe children are a blessing from the Lord, and have wanted to be open to welcoming two children into our family. For the first part of this journey, we agreed on one and decided this in itself would be a leap of faith. We felt peace from the Lord about this, but completed our paperwork for two just in case. As time has passed, we have gone round and round about this HUGE decision. We want to walk in faith and not in fear. We would love for our baby girl to not be the only adopted child in our family, and the only one with brown skin. The Lord would be faithful in either circumstance, but we've been seriously considering these things. Also, we know that once we arrive in Ethiopia, our hearts will forever be changed and we will want to bring a little 2 year old home. These are the children that have a harder time being adopted. The babies will be requested, but the toddlers and older children have a much slimmer chance of being adopted. Add this to the fact that our "baby", Thatcher, is now 4 1/2 years old. Wow! He has grown so fast, and would LOVE to have a brother: someone to wrestle with, play ball with, fight with : ) As God would have it, we have bunk beds in his room and tons of hand-me-down boy clothes. We see this as an opportunity for God to build our family in a very unique and special way. We prayed this past week about whether to change our request and Sean and I completely agreed that it was time. We have now officially changed our request to: girl/boy siblings (infant girl, 2 year old boy- our homestudy approves us for a boy up to 36 months). I say this with a little fear and trepidation, but sensing peace from the Lord. He gives us the grace we need when we need it. We are called to walk by faith, and this will definitely be a faith-builder. We anticipate the transition to be hard, but know that it will be such a blessing in the long run for these 2 children to have each other, and for us to be stretched or squeezed. We will need to rely on His strength and not our own. This may change our wait time, but what is a few months in light of ~ the rest of our lives, and eternity??? Thank you to those of you who have been praying for God to lead us. He is leading and we are grateful.

Our piano

Last week, I was driving home from church and was asking God to please provide a piano for our family. Grace started taking lessons a few weeks ago and was practicing on her mini-keyboard from Target. Her little fingers wouldn't fit in the right places and it was frustrating for her. I kept looking on Craig's List for a free piano and came up empty. So after bringing it to the Lord, I went on CL again and found a couple of pianos for $200 each. I thought I'd go take a look, but knew that we didn't have the cash laying around for that. When I got home, Sean said, "Well, the piano's paid for!" He didn't know that I had been praying, but we had received a check in the mail from our insurance company for $239. Is that provision from the Lord, or what? We give him the praise for our new piano (well, it's from the 1960's, but it's new to us). If you watch the video of Gracie, you'll see that I'm not yet a pro at taking video with my camera. Oh, and the piano hasn't been tuned in 15 years. That will be next on our list....

Texas, our Texas

Well, sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but we were out of town for 3 weeks. We spent most of our time in Ft. Worth with family and friends, but we also spent a week at Mo-Ranch, down in Hunt, TX. I grew up going there with my family and now we try to make the "annual" trip there with my parents, sisters, and their families too. It's so much fun, and we just can't get enough of the outdoors and family time.
We got back and started homeschool for Gracie, who is in 1st grade this year. Thatcher will be learning his ABC's and 123's also. Our first week was even better than I'd expected, with plenty of time to fit everything in. It really is a blessing, and I'm enjoying my time with them at the school table.
We also started piano for Grace, though we don't have a piano yet. You should see her practicing on her little Target keyboard. I'm praying that I can find one inexpensively or even FREE on Craig's list. Thatcher started soccer and is a natural little athlete. That boy amazes me.
As you can see above on my "ticker", we've reached the 3 month marker on the waitlist. This means we're entering the WINDOW. Basically, we Gladney families hope to receive referrals between the 3rd and 5th month, though sometimes it takes longer than anticipated. I have a feeling it will still be some time now, but in the meantime, I'm pulling baby stuff down from the attic. Who knew it could be so fun? It definitely has added to my baby bug. I was awake alot in the night last night and couldn't help feeling that I needed to be praying for our baby. Please lift up a prayer for her.

Doll Party

My mom came to town for a visit and helped throw me a "doll party". It was so much fun! Friends and neighbors came to sew dolls for the orphanages in Ethiopia. The guests got to choose the dress material, and be creative with the hair-dos. Some had to take their babies with them in order to finish them up, and others left them for me and Mom to finish. The dolls are all so cute and I know they'll bless the children we meet over in Addis Ababa.