3,000,000::

the number of girls who are at risk each year of FGM, many of them in Africa.

The BBC just published an article about FGM - Femal Genital Mutilation. Several agencies under the UN are calling for this practice to be eradicated in within one generation. You can read the article by clicking here: FGM Article

You can find more information about FGM from WHO here: FGM fact sheet
In Depth: The razor's edge article
The Female Genital Cutting Education and Network Project

We are now just waiting on our health insurance and life insurance to get the documents we need...we are so ready to be sending in all of our stuff!!! Hopefully in the next two weeks we will be turning in our dossier to get authenticated.
The last few weeks have been kinda hard. We are so ready to bring our baby home. We started this process last March and thought we would have been finished with the adoption process by now, whatever the reason, we know this is God's best for our family. I was looking through our dossier handbook that Gladney gave us and this sentence stood out to me today:

I can make you two guarantees.

One - if you stick through the frustrations and possible changes, we will find you the child that is meant to be part of your family.

Two - you will not be happy with this process until your child has come home.

This is so true to where I am. I am also reminded of the verse that my mom put on the back of my Heart for Africa necklace:

I waited patiently for the LORD;he turned to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 40:1

With each dossier document Gladney checks, we are getting closer and closer to completing this process. The only thing I can compare this to is the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Blake...I felt like I was going to be pregnant the rest of my life...it felt like it was never going to end, then, all of a sudden (by sudden I mean 13.5 hours of labor), it was over. God is good and he knows how much we can handle.

Sending some love around the world to our little Ethiopian baby...

whoever she might be.

We love you and can't wait until we can see your face and hear your name!

Medical Forms...check

Today we met a notary at the Doctor's office so the doctor could sign our medical forms needed for the dossier...this form has kinda been a bit of a pain to get, but it is done and I am going to be sending it over the Gladney just to make sure it is correct! Whew!

Still Here

Just wanted to give you a little update that we are still here and still trying to collect the documents needed for our dossier...we ran into a few little bumps, but things are coming along.

We were so excited to find out yesterday that we will be getting the money we put into our old adoption agency back! Praise God!