This one is for the locals...


We are hosting an Adoption Q&A at Linton First Christian Church at 1pm on Saturday, February 23rd.  (That's this Saturday!)


This is our first big community outreach event and we are all very excited.  (And nervous.)  We are trying our best to get the word out, and we really hope that we have a big turnout.  Here's a little bit of what you can expect...


Christie and Adam Derloshon from Love Is... Ethiopia are coming down from Indianapolis to share about their mission work in Ethiopia.


Susan Neal from Greene County DCS is coming to talk about the needs of local children and foster care.


Julie VanHoose-Wells from Greater Love Adoption Decision in Evansville, IN is coming to talk about private domestic adoption. 


We'll also have a panel of adoptive parents and adult adoptees to answer your questions about what adoption is really like.  


So, if you're a local person and you are at all interested in learning more about adoption or orphan care, please come out!  It's free.  We'll have free child care and good food.  It's just a great opportunity to learn more about adoption, foster care, and caring for children in need.  


If you have any questions, leave a comment or send me an email.
 
I can list at least ten different blog posts that I want to write and we have 18 unfinished posts in our drafts folder right now.  But the time to write and finish a post just hasn't been there.


One reason is that David's van fundraiser really took up a lot of time.  As soon as the campaign finished on January 4th, we went right to organizing and mailing out perks.  There were a lot of them.  And I just finally got the last ones in the mail last week.  I'm really sorry to the guy who claimed coffee back at Thanksgiving and probably just got it in the mail today.  I hope you really enjoy it... 
The other reason we seem to have less time now...
Let me share with you a typical morning with Willow.  Now I'm going to share about last Tuesday, because it was just barely warm enough that we could go outside and I took a lot of pictures.  I'm sharing this particular day only because I have pictures, but don't think for a minute that this day was extraordinary.  Oh no.  This is how mornings go now.  It doesn't matter if we're inside, outside, at home, in a store, anywhere... it always goes something like this.


River was riding his "big tricycle" down the driveway (some people call them bicycles, he's calls it a big tricycle) and Willow was chasing him.  I moved to catch her and my cell phone fell out of my pocket and the screen shattered.  (It stopped ringing months ago when I dropped it in a cup of coffee, so this wasn't a huge loss.)


River rode up and down the sidewalk.  Willow went from trying to take the neighbors basketball, to walking in front of the big tricycle, to running into a big, cold puddle of dirty water in the road.  After my patience wore thin I decided we were going to the back yard.  
They played so well together and Willow had so much fun.  But she also ate three handfuls of potting soil and stuck her arms and face into a bucket of water.  From the hose.  In January.  
When I had had all of the fun I could handle... we went inside to get Willow a bath.  While I fixed the bath water, she took the wind-up teddy bear that my mom bought for her future grandchildren on her way home from our wedding, and Willow swished his head in the toilet. 
Finally, she got into a nice warm bath... in her safety seat, of course.  
Life with Willow is busy.  Thank the Lord she sleeps so well at night and takes a nap every afternoon, because every single moment she is awake she is moving.  She and River are completely different, and yet they are the perfect compliment to each other.  They love each other so much.


Whenever anyone asks us how things are going, I always end up saying, "She's crazy!"  Because she is crazy, and we're crazy about her.  She is all good things wrapped up in one beautiful, high speed, 25 pound package.  I am so thankful that we found each other.  Our family would have never been complete without her.  She was the missing piece.  She always was.  We are honored to be the ones to scrape the potting soil off her tongue and to whisk her out of the path of speedy, big tricycles.  


She had a good family in Ethiopia.  They were strong, and smart, and they love her very much.  Now, with their permission, we get to be the family in the second act of her short life.  We have been blessed.  We will try to cherish every blessed, crazy, exhausting minute.


I hope to post again really soon.  But in case I don't, you'll know why.  I promise this blog won't die out like many do.  I have so much more to say!  Someday, there will be time to say it all.