Adoption Update

No referral yet, but we did at least get some information yesterday. Apparently one of the causes for the delays we've been experiencing recently in the adoption process is that Colombia approved over 300 dossiers in July of 2005 (our dossier was approved in December of 2005). What that means is that it took over three months for them to get the 300 July referrals complete. The good news is that all of the 300 July referrals are now done and they have started August referrals. The other good news is that between August 2005 and January 2006, Colombia only approved 64 dossiers (ours is included in this set). We're still not sure why they approved 300 dossiers in one month! At any rate, this means the process should hopefully pick up a little. There's still a very slim chance that we could adopt by the end of this year, but it's looking more like the beginning of next. Currently, we are #9 on our agency's list for referrals.

So Happy Together!!!

The Light House Chapel at the Farmer's Pike Festival

To help celebrate the Labor Day weekend, we spent a beautiful day at the Farmer's Pike Festival (over 400 vendors of antiques, crafts, and fair food!) near Hagerstown, IN. I must admit that by the time we arrived Sam and I were tight jawed and pert near balled up fightin'. Translation for you Yankees: we were about ready to kill each other! Reason #1: Sam was hungry Reason #2: it took us 1 1/2 hours to get there because every other frickin' house along US 38 was having a garage sale and all of the old folks were driving like 20 miles an hour (in a 55 mph!) to take a gander at the sales Reason #3: Sam was hungry Reason #4: One of us thought there would be an ATM in the middle of the frickin' cornfield where the festival is held in the middle of the country and the other, smarter one of us wanted to stop by an ATM on the way there and in fact asked the other one several times to stop and get money (yeah, there was no ATM and one of us had to drive into Hagerstown to find an ATM) Reason #5: Sam was hungry

Well, we finally arrived and hooked up with my parents. We were all feeling much better after some yummy fair food! We even found a few treasures - some antique books for Em! And best of all some 400 thread count Egyptian cotton king size bed sheets...well yeah, where else would you buy your sheets if not from a festival in the middle of the country? That's what they call "classy" my friend!

Ma posing with her childhood idol President Lincoln!

Ma posing with Sam!

So we're almost ready to leave and we spot the Old Time Soda Fountain. For the low, low price of only $9.00 you can buy a steel Wild Bill mug and get as many refills of root beer, cream, grape, and orange sodas as you want. Well, since it was $9.00 we decided to share one and even though we were ready to go, we didn't leave until we had refilled 6 times! We were gonna get our money's worth of old time soda by golly! Yep, that's what you call "high class" folks!



Then things took a little turn for the odd...for some still as of yet unclear reason, mom wanted us to drink out of the mug at the same time. A little odd, but...well, you know my family!

...and then things just took a turn for the downright obscene! This one almost got us kicked out of the Christian run festival! For those of you who know me well...doesn't this explain a lot?

As we were heading home, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the birthplace of Wilbur Wright in Millville, IN!

Side-front of house

Back of house

Front (standing in the street looking at the house)

Airplane in the courtyard of the Wilbur Wright museum

I mean, come on - when you pass by a giant sneaker how can you not stop for a photo op?!? Driving by the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle I made Sam pull over for pictures with the giant shoe! He was thrilled (note the rich slathering of dripping sarcasm).

On our way home we also stopped by Falls Park in Pendleton, since we'd never been before! It's a really cute little park with some deep water for fishing and some shallow rapids that are great for wading!

The rapids...oooooh! Aaaaahhh!

Emily channeling her inner surfer, dude!

In an homage to Daniel-san's crane move in Karate Kid, Sam shows off his ninja like balancing maneuvers.

Never to be outdone by Sam, Emily-san shows off her wicked sweet karate moves too! And no, I don't really see much of a difference between Sam's and my skill level...I mean anyone can balance on one leg on a sharp, pointy rock in the middle of a flowing rapid. But to do so on a large, flat rock in shallow water, takes ninja like reflexes and nerves of steel!

Girls Night Out!!!

Here comes the bride! On Friday we celebrated Kristen's upcoming nuptials with a girls night out! We started the night off at a new restaurant on Mass Ave. called 45, a great new addition to Mass Ave. with a really cool atmosphere and great sandwiches and sushi! After dinner we sashayed down the street to the Rathskeller for some drinks and live music! As the night wound down a few of us wrapped up the night with dessert martinis at Scholar's Inn! Oh, what a night!

The Bride-to-be, Kristen and sis, Shelli

Ooh, la la! Kristen, totally workin' her bacherlorette tiara, shows off a sassy little number!

Carrie, Leah, Kristen, Cassie & Shelli (Note the guy in the back who was really into being in all of our pictures!)

Kelsey, Kristen & Erica

Hardee's Girls (channeling the spirit of the Hooters Girls, with tight little tank tops that said "I Love Thickburgers" across the bosom) passed out Hardee's necklaces!

Shelli, Kristen & our new friend!

Emily, Laura, Kristen & Shelli (the night owls who wrapped up the night at Scholar's Inn!)

You Can Help!!!

Third Phase Women's Shelter and Food Pantry

With rising gas prices and a sluggish economy, more and more families are depending on food pantries to get by from paycheck to paycheck. Most of you know that I volunteer every Thursday at the Third Phase food pantry in Noblesville (the largest of the 32 food pantries in Hamilton County.) In the past couple of months we have seen the numbers of families coming to us for food assistance rise from around 15-25 families per day to around 40-50 families per day! Unfortunately, we often times don't have enough food in our pantry to really meet that need well. Don't get me wrong, some days are much better than others, and I feel really good sending out carts that are well stocked with canned vegetables, fruits, and meats. Sadly though, some days, like today, I feel like crying as I have to tell people, "If you can just hold out a little longer and come back in a few days when we've got a greater food supply you'll be much better off." Sometimes they are able to, but sometimes, like a woman today told me, "I don't have a choice. I'll take whatever you've got because I don't have anything left at home." One thing I have learned though and seen time and time again, is that even when things look their bleakest, God always finds a way to provide for us. Sometimes, if we're really low, the gals and I will just pray that God will miraculously send us food. And I can tell you, more often than not, it happens! About a month ago things were bad and we were praying to God to provide something for us and that same day an older gentleman showed up (in the pouring rain nonetheless) with two laundry baskets full of frozen food! His freezer had broken the day before and they didn't have any way to keep the food frozen until their new freezer arrived, so he brought it to Third Phase rather than it going to waste! Now, I'm not saying that God broke this man's freezer :-) but isn't it amazing the ways in which God fulfills his promise of provision to us?

Today when I arrived at Third Phase my good friend, who is in the program there, greeted me and then sadly shook her head and just said, "It's bad." I nodded, knowing just what she meant. I've seen the food pantry picked pretty clean before, but this is the absolute barest I've every seen it. Today we passed out canned peaches, bags of pita chips, and gummy bears. We had a few cans of applesauce and diced tomatoes, and some frozen items like Little Caesar's pizzas and some dumplings, but we ran out of those items early on.

Here's a peek inside our pantry today

Sooooooo....hopefully you're wondering, "HOW CAN I HELP?" Here's a few ideas:

1) Drop off non-perishable items on Saturday mornings at a drive-thru collection site in the parking lot of Grace Community Church. Donations are accepted every Saturday morning throughout the entire year from 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

2) Did you know that hundreds of thousands of dollars of un-used retail food is thrown out each night!?! You can join Food Rescue and help bring food that would otherwise be thrown away to places like Third Phase where it can be used to help the poor. Go to http://www.foodrescue.net/ to see how you can help by volunteering 90 minutes of your time once a month to pick up food after the stores close at places like Panera Bread, Paradise Bakery, Starbucks, and many others!

3) Do a bit of Autumn cleaning! Go through your cabinets and pantries and get rid of all of those things you're probably not going to use! Then give Emily a call and I will personally come get your donation and drop it off at Third Phase! Now, that's service!

4) For those of you who live in Marion County and would prefer to help out your local food pantry, Shepard Community Center's food pantry is vital to families in downtown Indianapolis. Did you know that 8 out of 10 children on the near East side of Indy get two meals a day ONLY if they're in school? Shepard's food pantry helps to feed children in their after school program and creates weekend and holiday food packs for kids to take home. For more info go to http://www.shepardcommunity.org/

Why I Love Grace!

The "New" Grace Community Church!

Inside the new auditorium!


Our new lobby - "Town Square"


Before we began the Imagine Fundraising Campaign (to build the new auditorium, along with a lot of other really cool things!) we wrote prayer requests and our hopes and dreams for Grace Church on these rocks which were eventually built into some of the walls in the lobby area! Cool!


The Knights of Glory marching band helped us christen our new auditorium!


But the REAL reason I love Grace Community Church is not our cool new auditorium and lobby or all of the new technology, lights, and windows that mechanically raise in the auditorium to let in sunlight (which don't get me wrong, are totally kickin')! But instead, I was curious to hear what Dave Rod, our Senior Pastor, would have to say in his first sermon today in our brand new auditorium. The question he posed to us was this: "What does God have to say about our new [$28 million] building renovations?" His answer, not what you'd expect to hear from a lot of other churches in our position I would guess, was this: "The ruling is still out. God's going to wait and see." He's not going to decide just yet, but is going to wait and see how well we use the monies and gifts and buildings we've been blessed with. Before God makes His final decision as to whether we've been good stewards of His money, He'll need to make sure that we have in fact aligned ourselves with His Kingdom agenda of caring for the poor and needy and striving for justice for the persecuted. What an awesome responsibility we've been given! I'm so thankful that our church leaders see and understand this responsibility and do everything they can to lead the church in the direction of God's Kingdom agenda!

Psalm 84: 2-4

How long will you defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked? (2)
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. (3)
Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked. (4)

In Vino Veritas!!!

"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) From: She Stoops to Conquer, I

We finished up our Indy Wine Trail on Saturday by visiting the last four wineries on the list! A few weeks ago, while I was in Guatemala, Sam and his family visited Buck Creek, Chateau Thomas, and Simmons Wineries while the heavy flooding was occuring in southern Indiana! Yeah, they're that serious about their wine! This time I was able to join them as the "Designated Navigator" to Michele's "Designated Driver"! Filling up the "drinking" portion of the van was Sam, Elginia (Sam's mom), Kevin (Sam's brother), Michele (Sam's sister), Russ (Michele's husband), and Andy (family friend).

We've loaded up the van and are ready to head out! A quick pic before we go! Here Andy exercises his right to express his happiness in an alternative manner!

Our first stop is to Grape Inspirations in Carmel (yep, that's right - Carmel, on Rangeline Rd.)

Our second stop was Ferrins Fruit Winery, also in Carmel (I know! Who would have thought - 2 wineries in Carmel!)

Next stop was a quick break for lunch in Zionsville at the Curator's Cafe at the Sanctuary! Great job, Michele, for finding this treasure - this place was amazing! The building is an old church that has been converted into a gallery for Nancy Noel's beautiful artwork. It's gorgeous inside, with Noel's artwork displayed throughout, and the cafe had deliciously yummy food!

The Sanctuary & Curator's Cafe

Inside the Sanctuary

Some of the beautiful stained glass windows in the Sanctuary.

I love the Noel painting in the background - from her series of paintings of the Masai people of Africa.

This one was way too funny to pass up! While walking back to the van, we noticed this game in the window of a store. It's called "Stampin'" and it's billed on the box as "The lively game of stamp acquisition!" Wow.

Our third stop was Mallow Run Winery in Bargersville, IN. Here the group takes a moment to contemplate their wine! Hmmmm....

It's been a long day and Em's a bit tired!

Mallow Run was the only winery we visited today with its own vineyard! Some of the lovely grapes!

Our last stop: Easley Winery in downtown Indianapolis.

Wow! Now, that's alotta vino!