Life Unexpected

Saturday night, Christmas Eve, my family and I traveled to New Jersey for our traditional Czech Dinner with our extended family. The night was full of traditions including sauerkraut soup, mushroom soup, specialty breads and cookies, and of course the golden pig (that's where coins rain from the ceiling...you figure that one out). After our celebration we hopped back in the car and traveled back to my parents' house in Maryland, to spend the night and wake up Christmas morning together. For some reason I woke up really early. I think it was because I was singing a solo at my parents' church Christmas morning and was getting nervous! I jumped in the shower and when I got out heard my niece Sadie crying. I went in her room, picked her up, and got to sit by the tree watching the lights for like a half hour. She was mesmerized by those lights and our singing Christmas tree. My sister told me that allowing her to sleep and taking care of Sadie was the best Christmas presen...

I have decided that kids have some kind of instinct inside of them that tells them exactly what they need to say to make you smile. Last week, I called my mom and was bawling on the phone. I guess the reality had set in that we may not get a call with our referral, and that just made me sad. She had been riding in the car with my niece Emma, who is 5, and when she got off the phone, she told Emma, "Auntie Ang is sad. She is sad because she hasn't gotten to bring home her babies yet." Emma, who is a thinker and I believe a really smart kid, just pondered those words and said nothing. Later on that day, she came up to my mom and handed her a card she had made. She said, "Grammy, this is for Auntie Ang. It needs to go in an envelope for her. It's because she didn't get to see the birth of her babies." Wow! I was blown away by the kindness of a 5 year old. The past few days God has allowed me to have "moments" with my nieces. Emma, who ...

It's hard to even know where to start on this post. I probably should have blogged each day of this vacation. Nonetheless, I will attempt to paint the picture of all that has taken place over this Christmas vacation (it may just come in several postings!)... For starters, let me just get it out there, we did NOT receive a Christmas Miracle like we had been praying for. While I wish I had some profound understanding of that, I don't, and at times, this past week, the disappointment of a Christmas Miracle not fulfilled has been hard to swallow. At the same time, I know that God is in control. I also know that his plans are perfect, and that we are growing in this wait process. I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart I want HIS plan to prevail in HIS time, and I wouldn't trade that for the world. That being said, spending time with my family this Christmas break was exactly what my soul needed during this difficult wait time. I have been encouraged, learned some...

As promised, here are some pictures from our fundraiser last weekend. These are some of the awesome students that helped us all night. My new Ethiopian friend, Aster...cooking the most amazing food! This is our table of t-shirts and bracelets we were selling and our set-up in the ministry center. Our speaker, Jeromy praying for us... My mom on the run with her spaghetti... My Dad and his new Ethiopian friend, Mel

At the start of last week, I was somewhat in panic mode. I really had no idea how we were going to pull off our Ethiopian Fundraiser Dinner, I wasn't sure I had the help I needed, I wasn't sure a lot of people were coming, and I just somewhat felt discouraged. Last Tuesday, I was "venting" to my friend and secretary, Janey, about all of this anxiety. She is one of the biggest prayer warriors I know and has become such a great friend. She said to me, "Pastor Andrea...what do you need? Let me help you. Do you need dessert? Do you need pasta?" I sheepishly said, "Well...I could about 10 some desserts." To which she answered, "Ok...I have four boxes of cake mix at my house. I will provide 4 desserts for you." I was thrilled about that. Well, I came back several hours later, and she said, "Pastor Andrea, I have great news! I have 10 desserts coming this Saturday for you. I just called all of my friends and said, 'You know...

I am not even sure how to put this day into words, my heart is so full. I woke up this morning to the smell of homemade spaghetti sauce cooking throughout the house. I didn't sleep much last night, because I was anxious and nervous and excited all at once for our Ethiopian Dinner. My mom and I spent the morning pretty low keyed, and then my Dad arrived and we began to kick the afternoon in gear with final preparations for our fundraiser. My Dad arrived around 11am with a bouquet of flowers from my sister, Heather (who was supposed to come but got sick), and a really cute plant from my sister Kristen (who lives in Boston) and his mad peeling skills. You see, Dad and I had been put in charge of peeling about 60-70 hard boiled eggs for one of the Ethiopian dishes, and I think for about an hour it was a battle of Dad and Ang vs. the eggs. In the end, I am pretty sure the eggs won...they did not want to peel, but nonetheless, we accomplished the task. We were sitting at the table w...

As many of you know, this past week has been major preparation for our Ethiopian Adoption Fundraiser taking place tomorrow night. It has been quite the adventure. There is an Ethiopian family that practically lives across the street from us. A couple of months ago our Pastor connected us to them and we have been working together to plan this Ethiopian Dinner. From the second we met them, we were family. In fact, Aster, the wife, said to us, "If you are adopting an Ethiopian child...you are now Ethiopian too! You are family." We immediately felt embraced by their family. Well, last night started the adventure of getting ready to prepare the meal. We traveled to Sam's Club together, and I had absolutely no idea what we were getting. I just let Aster lead the way. We found that we both had a love for Sam's Club samples, and were excited to see if there were any. We stumbled on the first sample cart and I was so excited I grabbed a toothpick and munched down o...

Lately, I have had several people ask me, "What's going on with the adoption...anything new?" "New" would be the understatement. A lot has happened in the past few weeks, and I have been trying to process it before I chose to blog about it. I will try to catch you up as best as I can. Several weeks ago, we went to our social worker trying to get a grasp on the wait process. We asked her where we were in the grand scheme of waiting, to which she did some research with our agency, and came back concluding, "You are going to wait a long time if you are only open to a sibling group that includes an infant." After much prayer and seeking, we surrendered the desire for an infant and opened up our preference sheet to say we were open to two under the age of 4, no infant necessary. Let me just pause for a minute and say...for me...that was a big surrender. I felt like the weight of the world was off of my shoulders, until we got another dreaded call fro...