21 days to court...

I made a "true media" presentation yesterday, which is a collection of photos of Olivia and Ethiopia put together with the song by Avalon, Orphans of God. I made it to perhaps be used at church in a couple weeks.

I wish I could show it here, but I cannot. If you want to see it privately, let me know. But until I pass court, I cannot post any photos of Olivia. And even after court, the presentation has some photos of other children yet to be adopted, so I cannot....

But each time I watch it my heart just aches, and tears roll down my face. Our God is so awesome. And these children so in need of His love and a loving family. It just overwhelms me. How one or two children (or more) so impact our family, enrich it, expand it, deepen it, make it...and yet there are so many many many more....in want of love and family...and so many many many families that have not even thought of expanding their arms and hearts....

sigh....

The fields are white with harvest and the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send workers......

open hearts, homes, arms, minds.....

ESL.....at last...

Remember the scenes in "Good Morning Vietnam" when Robin Williams is teaching a class of Vietnamese adults, English...his style? How about Lilies of the Field, where Sydney Pointier is teaching a room full of nuns to repeat "I stands up, y'all" then launches into the spiritual, "Amen, amen..."

That is ESL, English as a Second Language, education. Comes in all shapes, forms and sizes.

I wanted to share, because I have been in such a quandary regarding Olivia Mame...on what to do about school when she comes home. I can't home school (single mom working) and the private Christian school my other kids go to does not have an ESL program. I have been snooping around the internet and the website for our public school district, but had not found much. Looks like they only had some tools for teachers to use to help students in the regular classroom.

Today I decided to really focus and figure out what to do. I have been praying that God would lead me to the right solution.

VOILA! I talked to this great guy who heads up the program for the local school district. They have an ESL program called Newcomers, which are dedicated classrooms for ESL students for one or two semesters, depending on how quickly they pick it up...

Tomorrow I am meeting with him and observing both the classes (it is offered in two different schools in the district)to see what I think. And they have a bus for the ESL students from a park close to our home.....

And it is free! (I know all of you who are in public schools get the free thing, but I am so use to paying for EVERYTHING, that it
is just a blessing. )

If feels good to have another piece of the puzzle fall into place!

Thank you Lord! Amen, amen, amen..

Their Future Hangs in the Balance4

Many of the children in Mame's orphanage are from this region, and Hope is opening a new orphanage in this area:
http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2008/world/ethiopia/

By Kate Geraghty

September 27, 2008

THE people are desperately hungry. Two thousand of them queue from early morning to see the Australian nurse Alana Baker and her co-workers for the chance to escape from the grip of acute malnutrition.

Drizzling rain and cool temperatures do not deter them; nor does the crowd-control man whipping people back into line with a branch.

Baker, 28, is in the second week of a three-month mission in southern Ethiopia with Medecins Sans Frontieres Belgium, working as an outreach nutritional nurse.

Thousands of people, mainly farmers, travel up to 250 kilometres to reach the mobile clinic where Baker and up to 10 staff work.

The team visits five locations each week, testing for malaria and screening people for severe and moderately acute malnutrition. They weigh, measure and register them, giving nutritional supplements to those who need them.

In May the nutritional crisis was dire, Baker said, but the clinics were making a difference.
Last week the United Nations estimated that up to 17 million people in the Horn of Africa urgently needed food, up from 9 million earlier this year, as drought, soaring food prices and conflict took a toll on the region.

I've been tagged....

My tag response is on my other site: http://sandeefamily.blogspot.com/

Just too precious...

From the Martin Family...another family in the Bay Area, waiting for their Ethiopian referral...

NEWS...I have NEWS!

I am happy to announce........

(drum roll please..)

I have a court date! Yes. The court date for Olivia Mame to become my daughter is set for November 17th.

Yea......

So...hopefully, prayfully, we will pass court the first time. I could be traveling mid-December and Olivia would be home by Christmas! Barely! YEA! Pray for us. (Court goes smoothly, quick, quick Embassy date for our Visa, and money for the flights!)

It is amazing to remember that December 27, not even a year ago, I decided to embark on this journey.....

No News...again

It has been a week. Today. A week since my papers were filed in court. Supposedly I would get a court date assigned (ie know that the date is, ..) in that week.

It has been a very very long week. And of course imagination is that no hearing means something is wrong. IT is almost 6 pm in Ethiopia. So I know the courts have already closed today.

No news.... sigh

Pray for Samuel

Pray for Samuel http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/samuelphillipson http://paul-samuelphillipson.blogspot.com/ He came from Hope, Olivia's orphanage, 5 weeks ago.

Blessings....

I have the words!

I am excited that I have the words to the blessing they use at mealtime at Olivia's orphanage in Ethiopia. And for some reason they pray in English. I had seen and heard it twice on a video tape at meal time, but the voices and recording I could just pick out some of the words. Well here they are, from another mom's website, whose son is now here in America, and recited the prayer at the dinner table.

Thank you God

for this day.

We love you.

We need you.

Be with us

.Protect us.

Bless our food.

Bless our thoughts.

And guide us

in your way.

In Jesus' name

We pray

Amen.

And I say AMEN! Pray for a little boy, Samuel, whose older brother Paul, is were I got this prayer. Samuel was in a bad accident on Saturday and is in and out of multiple surgeries...very serious. Hold them in prayer, please. http://paul-samuelphillipson.blogspot.com/

The View on the Other Side of the World

A trickle of news.....

So I did not get any BIG news....but a little trickle:

"The filing is done but we won't hear anything for at least a week, when they issue our dates."

So hopefully next week, I will know our court date....

and then can start panicing, I mean planning! :)