Curtis' first post...

Sometimes in our quest to do exciting and Godly tasks, the most basic of things which serve as our foundations in life tend to get neglected and fall by the wayside, resulting in hard lessons to learn and hurting hearts to find healing. This is unfortunately the case with Amy and I right now, as I am writing to inform you that we have decided to temporarily shift the focus off of our adoption journey and onto our marriage and family for the next little while. There are a few things (mostly from my end of the spectrum) that need our unwavering attention in order for us to make our marriage and family stronger and for us to progress with a healthy adoption in which we will bring one or even two more family members into the mix. It is mostly heartbreaking for us to have to do this, as we know adoption is for sure what God has planned for us and we have been chomping at the bit to get underway with our applications and home study, however for the sake of the longer term, it is encouraging to know that this will further strengthen our relationships with each other, and our Father when the time is right to pick up where we left off. Also...hopefully the Columbus housing market will be a little stronger in a few months to a year, and we can sell this condo a little easier! We are still going to be continuing our fundraising with our Etsy Shop and other things we have on the go, so when the time comes for full steam ahead that will be one mountain we don't have to begin to climb, and can hopefully start the process and pay some of the fees right way Thank you all for your prayers and support as we take this pause, looking forward greatly to what God has in store for us during this next season, and especially when he gives us the green light to turn our attention back to Ethiopia.

Curtis.

Duck thoughts...

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,

what you will eat or drink;

or about your body, what you will wear.

Is life not more important than food,

and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air;

they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they?

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 6:25-27 (NIV)

(Lessons taught by ducks during a snow storm tend to be some of the most powerful. If I was a duck, I would have long ago flown south...)

Whoops, I fell off the face of the planet

I ... uhhh... forgot how to log into blogger?

Merry Christmas, Happy New year, and happy over half way through January! Christmas was crazy, leading up to Christmas was especially crazy(so many orders for the Etsy Shop as well as photo shoots!), and A little time "off" has been good for the soul. But I am about ready to get back on the horse!

The shop is pretty bare bones right now, but I have plenty of ideas from fabric hair bows and headbands, a little jewelry, and new adorable patterns for baby wipes. Look for all of that in the next couple weeks! And of course, our fundraising shirts can be bought there as well!

And for the elephant in the room... our place. This "selling" process has been trying to say the least. I HATE it. The cleaning is enough to drive me up the wall! We are (not very willingly) learning about patience, this is completely out of our hands, but so will the rest of the adoption process, so it is a lesson that has to be absorbed. We are attempting to trust that it is in God's hands, that He will sell our house when it is time. And in the mean time we are praying for our future little one. That they are being nourished in their mommy's tummy, that she is safe, or that they are being loved on by their first family. We are trusting that there is a reason for the delay!

Enjoying the moment...

Or rather trying to. It is so easy right now to focus on the "not yet" of our life. We are waiting for a showing, waiting for someone to "chose" our house out of a flooded housing market, and learning one of our first lessons on patience for this adoption journey. I have a sneaking feeling this is going to be a lesson that is on "repeat" in our lives.

But so we wait, and attempt to turn all of our fear, worry, and impatience on the Lord, trusting that HIS timing is perfect, and if we are waiting now He has a plan. (Maybe our little one is yet to be born?) And in the meantime we are making memories with our 2 that are home, making this a holiday season to remember, not for gifts(oh but everyone is getting more than their fair share of those too!), but for time spent together laughing and loving.

So today we made cookie and play dough, gluten, dairy, and dye free of course. And you would have though my little girl was in heaven. It should be noted that this was her very first experience with colored cookies. She was in love!

Poor guy was left out of the play- dough/ cookie fun. Good thing climbing on the chair keeps him entertained!

Perfect Night

Saturday evening we headed up to church (can I just say how much I love Saturday night church when small children are involved? So much easier that the morning rush on Sunday morning!), and afterwords ran into some old, dear friends and made some new ones. We sat and chatted about life while the kids ran around like crazy banshees in the lobby. They had so much fun, I kept being asked, "mommy, can I go to?"

We met a couple who is getting ready to head out to Tanzania with Young Life Africa, who connected us to an ETHIOPIAN ADOPTION GROUP I didn't know exsisted at our church! So exciting! We knew there was an adoption group, but this is specifically for keeping the Ethiopian culture alive. Such a blessing!

So following the chatting we went over to a local African refugees house, who we used to hang out with prior to having kids, but have not seen since. She was so excited to see us, and it was such a breath of fresh air (or rather incense...) to just hang out in her living room, and again watch the kids run around like crazy banshees. Lizzy took to them without a bump, and was all of the girls new best friend, crying when we had to leave, wanting to stay and play with her new friends. (This makes us so happy, in the past we have had fear issues with Lizzy and other races, but apparently these are cleared up!)

So the conclusion of all of this rambling is this, we are confident that we are right in the hand of God, heading in the direction he wants us. We are confident our place will sell(although rather impatient ...), confident we will find the house we are meant to be in, and confident in the choice to head back to Westerville, and that to be the community we will be rooted in. Please keep praying for us, we know prayer is the only way all of the seemingly crazy steps will actually happen!

With Love,
The Garretts

Cookies for Adoption

Yum yum, delicious, buttery, glutouny sugar cookies. What is better?

How about yummy cookies, made by a local small cake business, hand delivered to your door, the weekend before Christmas? Oh and did I mention 100% of the purchase price goes directly to our adoption fund? Sign me up!

A friend from high school, and the baker extraordinaire of Mrs. Wileys Cakes, has offered up this amazing opportunity for us, and we are so very grateful. Such a fun and practical idea, and such an amazing blessing to us. Check her out if you are ever in need of a reasonably priced cake for a party or event. (And did I mention she will work with you on food restrictions, including making it Gluten, Casein, and Dye Free?) Amazing.

Back to cookies... and the details that you are all waiting on.

Cookies are 4 dollars per dozen, or 5 dollars per dozen if you prefer dye-free food dyes to be used in your icing. (Want just white icing "dye free"?, $4/doz., but be sure to mention "White dye free in your order!")

Want a "decorating kit" instead? Mrs. Wiley Cakes will happily bake and package cookies for you, and package up your icing so your kids can go to town decorating. All of the fun of cookies, with none of the rolling out/ baking mess! (Same pricing!)

Want Delivery rather than pick up at my house, just add 2 dollars to your entire order.

To order:
Simply click the "donate now" button on the top right hand side of the blog. Donate the total amount your cookie order will cost, and add in the notes to seller what you are ordering. For instance:
"Donate Now"-12.00
"Note to seller"- 1 dozen cookies, 1 dozen decorator kit, delivery

Sit back and wait for your delicious cookies to arrive!

Delivery Dates:
Our cookies will be lovingly delivered Saturday, December 18th, or will be available for pick up at a couple locations spread throughout Columbus.

Which brings me to just one more thing. We would love for you to Tweet, Facebook, Re-blog, and promote this. We also will have "work order forms" if anyone is interested. These can be hung up in offices and cookies will be delivered Friday the 17th of December, free of charge! For promoting this someway on the Internet, you get 2 dollars off your order! If you promote this at work you get a FREE DOZEN! Just our way of saying "Thanks for being so awesome!"

So in case you missed it, Cookies, $4/doz., $2/ 1x delivery fee, December 18th, 2010.

Merry Christmas, and Happy cookie eating!

Truth Pandemic - Get the facts about HIV/AIDS and Adoption