Phillipians 1:6 And he who
began the good work within you, will continue his work...
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| Driving (Miss Baby) |
Well, with summer over and the school year well under way
I'm beginning to feel I have some focus back. Well, sort of. We set the adoption journey aside
for a few months to enjoy the summer months with the girlies. And who wants to
hear "still waiting" every week or two anyway?? I know it's
hard for us to wait, so the constant reminder is, well honestly....
not.that.much.fun.
I will be honest and say it's
a bit frustrating that each time we ask for an update, the time period
lengthens. As of last week, we are now up to 12+ months for a potential
match. We started a year ago with "approx a year from start to
finish". I wonder if we just stop asking if the waiting period will miraculously
shorten? I doubt it. And I'm guessing this is the very thing that every
adoptive family goes through, so we're not special, unique or different.
Although I'd like to think so ;)
That said, it's giving us time
to evaluate, plan, and save. Those are positives and the areas we
choose to focus on.
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| Exploring |
I know most of you know the
story of when we moved to Bend last Fall. We had initially planned to
have a house here, then within the year, buy a condo in Portland. So we bought
on the smaller side to accommodate both. We wanted the flexibility of being able
to live between the two, as the girlies are in Salem with their mother during
the school week and we thought it would be nice to pick them up, and hang out
in Portland on the weekends; less driving for all of us. Well...things change
and we all love Bend soo much and the driving hasn't been an issue (Thank god
for good company :) that the Portland condo no longer feels necessary. So
instead of buying a condo in Portland we were looking to buy a condo in Bend as
a short term rental as we will need to reclaim the space in this house that we
were using as a short term rental once the baby(ies) come(s).
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| Partying (Ashlyn's 9th) |
As we evaluated all of our
options we found that we could actually purchase a bigger house in Bend, and keep our short term rental in our home (no having to traipse across town to clean, do yard work or maintenance). As well as keep our current house as a long term rental. So we began looking
and found a beautiful home, about twice the size of this house with a guest
suite already setup and plenty of room for little feet!
We couldn't be more excited! We’re set to move
on Halloween.
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| Floating |
Our current house has
been leased for a year starting November.
Moving into landlord-ism is a little scary and unpredictable but we
hired a good property management company to lead the way. Perhaps in a year or
two I will have learned enough about Oregon law to manage it
ourselves. Or not. Having 2-4 kids and a
full time job may be enough!
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| Summiting |
We are looking forward
to getting this move under way to get settled into our new house. I look
forward to decorating the new ST Rental space and getting it booked up again!
Hopefully just in time for the holidays.
I already have paint colors picked for the girlies and baby
room when we get there. (Painting may
just be my favorite (non-athletic) past time.)
There is
disappointment in the ever moving target for meeting that beautiful little girl
we are soo (patiently) waiting for, but we trust that we were given this time
for a reason. Time to find a bigger house for this growing family and more time to save for the
adoption expenses.
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| Hiking |
Please pray
for our patience and even more importantly, everyone in Ethiopia. Yesterday
we read of potential terrorist attacks in Addis Ababa (where our orphanages are located) as well as conflicting news about Ebola
spreading from Western to Eastern Africa.
Although we work through the disappointments in timelines and worries in travel, we feel eternally grateful for the opportunities presented to us the past few months.
Back to (His) work!
xoxo
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| Camping |
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| Riding |
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| Watching (Movies at church) |
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| Kissing (lizards) |
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| Shooting (pumpkins) |
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| Holding (8 snakes!) |
