Lux et umbra vicissum…

We got our authenticated documents back in the mail today!!  Yay!!  I had thought we would be able to send off our dossier at this point, but after looking through the home study I discovered that our social worker hadn’t included the agency license and such that we need to send with it.  She said she should be able to get them in the mail today, so I think we’ll have them by Monday at the latest.  In the meantime, we’ll scan all of the forms we do have so we can print of copies whenever they’re needed.

We got our USCIS (immigrations) fingerprints appointment in the mail today!  It’s January 13th in the afternoon.  I’ll have to work out someone getting the two oldest from school if not babysitting for all of them, but it’s well worth it.  Please pray with us that the results come back quickly so we can get a court date in Ethiopia.

As of today, we have the money we need to send in our dossier.

AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God is SO good and has blessed us so richly!!!  I had no idea where these funds were coming from, and now He’s brought them in from all over the place to give these beautiful girls a home.  PRAISE THE LORD!!!

If anyone was giving adoption money to us for Christmas, no fear!  We’ll still need to save money for travel.  Anything the agency receives above what we need to send them for their expenses is reimbursed to us for travel.  Since airfare isn’t cheap (though at least we might catch it in the off-season… fares to Ethiopia go up in June), and Joel will also need in-country money for the kids’ visas, medicals, and any other expenses that may arise, donations are still welcome. 🙂

God is so good.  I know I said that before, but I can’t say it enough.  God is so very good and His blessings are abundant.  Glory to His Name.

What gift is there that’s better than life with a loving family, a chance to live and grow?  We only need $4000 more to give that gift to our two future daughters in Ethiopia.  Please consider helping us to that goal.

A friend just came back from picking up her Ethiopian children, and she had a chance to meet L & B while she was there.  She sat down with L and told her that we were close to being able to get them.  L began to cry.  She said she loves us and misses us, and she wants to come home.

Please help us to bring our girls home.  I don’t know how God will reward you, but I truly believe that He does bless people for helping the orphans.

To give online, go to http://www.cwa.org and click on the link to donate to CWA or CWF.  Fill in your info, choose “CWA/CWF general fund”, and in the optional field choose “A CWA Family”.  Put in the name first name Joel or the first name Rebecca and the last name Fouse.  Input your credit card info and be sure to click submit.

God bless you this season and always, friends!

We only need about $4000 now to bring the girls home!!!  If anyone wants to donate, it’s tax deductible!  You can get one more tax deduction for this year if you do it this month.  And what a fabulous Christmas gift for two lonely girls…. a family!

We’ve been expecting to hear that the home study was complete any day since we received and corrected the draft a couple weeks ago, but we haven’t heard anything yet.  I think we’ll call our social worker today and check on it.  We’ll miss the December deadlines for grant applications, unfortunately, but it’s all in God’s hands.  Perhaps He’ll lead enough people to help us that we won’t have to apply for the grants.  That would be wonderful since it would mean more grants available for other people.  Most of the people who go through the adoption process don’t start out with all of the funds they’ll need, so there are plenty of people applying for the grants that are out there!

On a completely different note, the kids are using their birthday money to Christmas shop for their siblings (my suggestion, but they all liked it).  I think it’s wonderful that they get a chance to use their own money to buy something for someone else, but since they’re all pretty young it means I have to come up with a lot of inexpensive (they don’t have that much birthday money) gifts for each of them.  That isn’t a problem for Eli who loves cars (matchbox cars are cheap), but the others can be more difficult.  I think I’ve managed ok so far, but I was trying to think what I could suggest to Charis for Alexis.  I think I know something she’d love, but I have a dilemma…

Early in our marriage, Joel and I swore we would allow no barbies to enter our house.  The idea behind this is simply that they promote an unrealistic and unreachable view of beauty.  Having so many girls in the house now, I think it was a good decision.  There’s such a high rate of eating disorders and such things out there, and anything we might be able to do to prevent our kids from going through that is worth it.  (Don’t know if the anti-barbie stance will make a difference, but it’s one small way to try.)  Anyway, Alexis is now at the point where I think she would love to dress up dolls and play with them like I used to play with my barbies.  But I can’t find any of that type of doll that’s any better proportioned and whatnot.  I found some “Bible character” dolls, but I’m not sure if they’re meant to be undressed and redressed in different outfits – there certainly weren’t any clothing sets on sale with them.  Besides, it would seem odd to have “Queen Esther” going shopping with her girlfriends or losing her pet dog.

So my question is this: does anyone know of any dressable dolls out there that aren’t as oddly proportioned as barbie dolls?  I’m not looking for dress up baby dolls, because she’s mostly past the age where she would enjoy them.  I’m looking for ones that look more like young adults, but real young adults and not freakishly shaped ones. 🙂

The 3 AM results of having a wakeful, imaginative, dramatic five year old –

Branwen: daddy…. Daddy…. DADDY!!!

Me: (hobbling groggily into her room) Daddy is sick.  What do you need?

Branwen: (with no fear in her voice but plenty of drama) I saw a CIRCLE OF DARKNESS!!!!  And I’m SCARED!!!

Me: (still groggily) There’s nothing to be scared of.  Go back to sleep.

(I leave the room, get back to bed, and after a bit of a struggle begin to fall back asleep…)

Branwen: mommy… Mommy… MOMMY!!!!

Me: (still groggy) What is it, Branwen?

Branwen: (once again, with drama) Something TICKLED my SIDE!!!  And I know it wasn’t my blanket!  And I was LAYING ON THAT SIDE!!!!

Me: (rather at a loss, I go over and rub her side a bit, briefly) There, now go back to sleep.

Branwen: (calmly) Good night, Mommy.

– It’s a good thing that was the last time.  If it had continued, I don’t think even my half-asleep state would have kept me from getting mad.

The other night we had a pretty typical toddler boy quote, but it was still terribly cute.

Joel had gotten Eli ready for his bath, and Eli entered the bathroom where Branwen was brushing her teeth.

Eli: Bwanwen!!!  I NAKEY!!!!

(He was apparently very proud of this fact, though, oddly enough, if you suddenly need to take care of something while helping him dress, he gets very upset at his lack of pants.)

Desta’s trying to understand the whole Christmas thing –

Desta: Christmas is Jesus’ birthday?

Me: Yes.  That’s when we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, anyway.

Desta: Do we sing happy birthday?

Me: We can.

Desta: But Jesus is in heaven.  Do we sing it to heaven?

Me: That would be fine.

Desta: But our tookis will be dead in heaven. (note: tookis is our word for bottom)

Me: (silence)

Desta: How can we go to heaven to sing to Jesus?  Our tookis will be dead.

Me: Um… we don’t have to go there to sing to him, honey.  We can sing right here and he can hear us.

– I decided not to bother trying to address the dead tookis issue right then.  Where did she get that?  Well… that’s another story.

We are all finishing a very yummy dinner of turkey, gravy, sweet potato casserole, and cranberry sauce.  Alexis really liked the cranberry sauce, but apparently not enough to remember what it was called.

Alexis: May I have… um… may I have some more… um….

(pause)

Alexis: May I have some more New Zealand?

Joel gave her a questioning look.

Alexis: Well, I couldn’t remember what it was called, so I called it New Zealand.

Yes, my children are goofs.

We only need $6000 more!  To donate:

go to http://www.cwa.org

toward the bottom of the page click on “Donate now to CWA or CWF”

fill in your donor info, select donation amount, then in the optional area choose “CWA Family”

Put in the last name “Fouse” and the state “VA”

Put in your credit card info

Click Submit!

We can do this!  Every dollar helps!  Donations tax deductible! 🙂

(Said after her sister screamed because she saw a mosquito…)

Branwen: I’m not scared of anything!  Not now!  Because monsters aren’t real and I never met a bear.

After a large donation from a family member and the amount we’ve managed to save over the past several months, I think we only need about $6500 more to send in our dossier!  Huzzah!  Anybody want to join in and give us the best Christmas present ever???  Donations are tax deductible! 🙂