Facelift and introduction of friends

It only took 4.5 months for me to update the banner of our blog to include our new son. ;-) I redid the banner, but hit a roadblock with the blog layout (my big pictures were a bit of an issue). Then taking a lesson from macroeconomics, I weighed opportunity cost and quickly decided to outsource the layout of our blog and was very happy with Jennifer Ingersoll's very quick and responsive service at The Art of Living. She's a fellow adoptive mom with 2 adopted kiddos from China and had what I wanted in less than 24 hours for a VERY reasonable price! If you read these posts through an RSS feed, like Google Reader (which I visit more than Faceb**k!), then click over to us to see the changes.

One section which I have changed is to share a few blog links to friends who are currently in the process of adoption. If you're an adoption blog junkie like me, you'll enjoy living vicariously through these special families. Allow me to give you a brief background on some of them...

"Chasing After Love" and 'One More Makes Four....hmmm, Let's Make That Five' leave in 2 days to meet their children (in Ethiopia and China, respectively)! You'll want to check them out in the next few days and weeks. Chasing After Love is written by Nina & Wes Mullins -- they generously photographed Reni's arrival at the Lexington Airport in August (click here). "One More Makes Four" is written by a family, the DeLucas, I met last spring when I photographed their family here. The D's adopted their son in August of '09 and met his best buddy in the orphanage, Will, at the same time. They came home burdened to find a family to adopt Will too. After searching unsuccessfully for several months they concluded that God had placed that love and concern in their hearts because he was intended to join their family too!

In August I asked for prayer for the Taufer family here. My (Cydil's) family met Jed's family in the mid-1980s and kept in touch off and on, over the years. Two years ago I reconnected with Jed and met his wife, Vicki, through photography circles. This past August they traveled to Nepal to adopt their daughter, Nima, and got caught in the middle of the US Gov't freeze of adoption visas to Nepali orphans. Supposedly all families in process would be permitted to bring their legally adopted children home, however the State Dept is requiring those families to hire their own investigators and attorneys to prove that their children were legitimately abandoned (most whom have been in the orphanages for 2 or 3 years, since they were days old) at the cost of about $10K per child (on top of all of their other adoption-related expenses) before our gov't will issue these children visas. Vicki has been in Nepal since August 4 (the day Ellie and I flew home from Albania), except for two weeks in October. The Taufers submitted their documentation a couple of weeks ago and wait for a phone call to know if they will be able to bring Nima home to central Illinois. Jed had to leave to come back to the States today and Vicki and Nima remain in Kathmandu. I know they would appreciate your prayers.

This is getting long, so I'll try to speed this up. The Rascos are former colleagues of ours at WGM. They are adopting from Mongolia and Hanna has an excellent excerpt from a book she's reading, A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family. It explains why many who adopt do it again. And again. ;-) And while you're there, pick up a pound of coffee or buy a pair of earrings to support their adoption!

The photo above is of Nathan's new coffee mug which we bought here, at the Minus-1 Project. Isn't that a great name? They have all kinds of "Got Love?" paraphernalia that you can purchase and the proceeds will go towards bringing home their little one from Korea.

The Rutledges are bringing home a sibling set from Rwanda -- Elizabeth and I lived on the same hall in college. The Kjernalds are our dear Swedish-American-Nepali friends from Asbury (currently living in Sweden) that were one of the four couples that the Lord used to start us on the path of adoption in 2004. Their son, Sam, is a buddy of Ellie's and sweetly prays for her. They are awaiting a referral from China. The Schaetzles are a family related to our good friends, the Kinnells (also listed on the right -- they went from 0 to 4 children in 17 months!). I see Jen and Hunter several times a year when they come to Wilmore to visit their family here. They have been approved for a little girl in the Philippines.

The Carneys, Gezons, and Santors are all families we met through Bethany's Albania program. The Carneys and Santors shifted course and adopted sons from Russia (2009) and Bulgaria (2010), respectively, but we stayed in touch and shared their joy through these adoptions. The Gezon's daughter came home from Albania to Michigan in early 2010. She and Reni are two of only three or four Albanian children adopted to American families last year! It's an exclusive club. ;-)

I don't know about you, but as I look through that list, my heart warms as I see the variety of countries represented. When God gave me a piece of His heart for the world in 1991, my heart grew to see its needs and love and appreciate people and cultures different than my own. How exciting that the world is coming to us through these families!

And while I'm shamelessly promoting these shopping options, I would be remiss to omit my generous neighbor (and fellow adoptive mom), Maggie, who just announced today the opening of her Etsy shop. The demand for her goods speaks to her creative spirit, generosity of her heart, and God's blessing on her endeavors. One blessed, adoptive family per year benefits from the proceeds of her sales to help with their adoption expenses!

Check back occasionally as this list may be fluid to include families new to the process. Who knows, maybe that could be you! ;-)