God has a plan but we need your help!

We always say God will work it all out. Well it is one thing to say it but to put it into practice is another thing. We knew something was going to happen.  We just did not know what.  We were praying about what to do with the adoption we were working on... should we stop... put it on hold... or continue on...  I sat in church on November 18th just praying for the Lord to show me what to do.  We needed to do something.  We felt called to adopt again but everything was moving soooo slow.  I came home from church and started to check my e-mails. Much to my surprise there was an e-mail in regards to some children. What?  Could it be? This one will require more money then we planned Adoption is expensive! Adopting a set of kids is astronomical.  We are not wealthy. But one thing for certain is God has always supplied all our needs.  Can we trust Him to meet the needs of us adopting a sibling group.     This would require us to have a huge chunk of money upfront.  The one thing we do not have is all that money up front.  Living by faith has not allowed us to have a huge savings (just the opposite).  Our heavenly Father has always made sure we are taken care of.  He is Faithful.  The one thing that has been hard for Bill and I is to ask for financial help.  Bill always says he can work hard for the Kingdom but asking for money is just something that is the hardest thing to do.  Well here it goes.  These children are in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  There are regions in the DRC that have had some rebel fighting happening.  This is where these children are.  We need to get them out as soon as possible.  We need the money now.  We are trusting God to make this happen. We need the help of our fellow believers.  In this season of giving can you please prayerfully consider helping us.  We need to have an answer by Friday next week.  The agency tells us that they are considering separating the children since one is a boy and one is a girl.  They believe this will help with moving their case faster and removing them form danger.  I believe that God is big enough to make this happen.  Please stand with us and give.  Thank you. If everyone gave this mountain would be moved.

Holding...

Well we are still here.  As with all adoptions there are roadblocks and our second adoption is not exempt.  We are in a holding pattern right now.  Waiting... now that is not a new word for all who are familiar with adoption.  Please keep us in your prayers.  Till next time....

Busy...

Well I can not believe I have to say it once again... it has been too long since I posted. Life has a way of just getting busy. I have been learning that too busy of a life is not good. First, I know I have to make time for Kingdom stuff. My God loves His time with me and I have to make time to be with Him. When this happens there is nothing better and no better place to be! The next place I need to stop being so busy is the day to day stuff. I need to learn to just be with the family. The laundry and dishes can wait! When I just spend time with them it is so awesome. ( I am in the process of learning some video games, ie: kids dance and smash brothers) What a fun time for all of us. It brings me such joy to watch them all together. Which brings me to the last thing keeping me busy... This has to come with an announcement for everyone. Why you ask, because we have been a little more quiet about this. Here it comes...

We are in the process of adopting again. There I said it. This time around we thought that being a"pro" (ha ha) things would go more quickly. Enter God's timing. I know every delay works out in the end but it does not help with the frustration now. We have had problems with all different paper work. We are sending in the I600A this week, yes another step closer to an even longer wait! I know God knows who and when, I just need to trust! The next big step is getting the rest of the money for the Dossier. We have about half of it. We were counting on the tax refund but that is not happening, yet! The government sent us Emenet's COC with the wrong birth date (back in November 2010) We have been waiting on the COC to send an updated one and get her SS# to get the taxes filed. After many delays and bad promises we filed our taxes with out claiming her and will have to amend it later. I know God has it all planned and I have to trust. Here we go again.......

I hope you all enjoy the pictures. We just celebrated our two year anniversary with Emenet. We are blessed beyond words with our sweet girl. She brings such joy to everyone she meets. I can not imagine life with out her! Thank you Jesus for your faithfulness! Till next time.....

Ethiopia is on my heart today. All I can do is pray. Will you please pray?

A year!!

Dear sweet Emenet,

You have been home with us for a year now. What a year it has been. You have grown so much in this year. As we all look back to the day you became ours forever we were so excited to get to hug you and kiss you. You have brought such joy to our family. You love your brothers and they have such a great time playing with you. I love to sit and listen to all the sweet noise as you all play. It brings me such joy. It took you about two seconds to wrap your daddy around your finger. He loves you and treasures every second he is with you. You are so beautiful on the outside but so much even more beautiful on the inside! So many times people will stop to tell us how beautiful you are. I just had some one tell me how blessed you are that we adopted you. Boy, do they have it wrong we are the ones that are blessed. I can not even imagine life with out you. I stand so amazed at how God gave us the perfect child for our family. Adopting you has taught me so much about how much we are loved by our Heavenly Father! I can never express how blessed we are, that He chose you for us. When we were in Ethiopia, one of the other fathers suggested we call you Joy because you had so much joy. Was he right. I know we have had some adjustments and some bumps in the road, but I can not remember a day that you did not make me smile and laugh. You melt my heart every time you call me momma, and hug and kiss me. We love you so much! I am looking forward to our second year together! I love you so much my sweet little princess! Here we go...

Reflections

During this time of year I find that many people like to reflect on their past year. Well, we are no different in the Richardson's house. Time is flying by so quickly. It feels like just yesterday that we came home, but at the same time I can not even remember life with out Emenet! She is such a blessing. Since I last posted in September she has traveled with me to all different places. The fall is my busy time of year with art shows. To say she was loved by all my fellow artist would be an understatement. She traveled every weekend. We spent every weekend in September in the Akron/ Canton area of Ohio selling my art glass pieces at Yankee Peddler, we then spent time in Pa and Ohio. We travelled twice to Buffalo for a show and we finished with a show in Erie. Emenet had a wonderful time spending alone time with just Grandma and I. No brothers or as she has learned from Olivia...bothers! All of the kids have been getting along wonderfully. God knew how to pick the perfect little girl for us and WOW are we Thankful!!!! She had her Christmas preschool program it was cute. She was so excited. It was all about the true meaning of Christmas. The birth of the King of Kings, the Savior of the world. Thank you Jesus for being born and more so for dying for our sins. Emenet has grown so much. We have shared so many times about adoption. God is doing wonderful things and I can hardy wait to see what 2011 will bring for our family!!!! Praise God that He chose our family to be an adoptive family. It has changed us more than we ever thought...We are the blessed ones!!!!! Hopefully I will be able to post more often in the New Year. Have a blessed Christmas.

One year ago

It was one year ago that we received the very first picture of Emenet. That was such an exciting time for us. Bill had just left for his long road trip for work and I was out shopping. I was not expecting a referral so soon from our agency. Caitlin told us we could look at the picture and decide if we wanted to except this child or not. Needless to say it was love say first sight. I could hardly wait to get home to look at the pictures. Our lives were forever changed! Fast forward one year... Today was our "re-adoption" hearing. Emenet is now "officially" ours according to the state of Pennsylvania. Your birth day is officially 10-15-2006 and your name has been changed to Emenet Elizabeth Richardson. It was a big day! We took so many pictures. After our court hearing we came back to our house and had a wonderful Ethiopian feast. She was so excited to have injera and Kik Aicha, Misser watt, and what I call beef watt. I made everything except the injera. Emenet ate till she could eat no more. It was nice to share this day with my parents sister and both sister-in-laws! What a great way to celebrate our referral anniversary! Now she can not wait till her birthday next month! She will be turning the four! Next week will be her first full week at preschool. She has turned into a busy preschooler!