Winter Break in Southern California

As we settle into winter break and get nearer to Christmas, we definitely are so excited. We are so thankful for everyone who has supported our AdoptTogether fund. You raised money an international adoption specialist and family visas! Thank you for joining us in this!!

On the not so exciting front, we have decided to stay put for the holidays. We have made the 5,000 mile trek between Pasadena and Columbus or Charleston and back for the past number of years. This year we were geared up and ready to go, but at the last minute, we realized that being as high as we are on the list means that we could be getting a referral pretty soon. So, we are thankful for time to rest and get on top of the stuff that needs to be done to prepare to bring kiddos home, and we are trying to find ways to make this winter-less wonderland feel a little more like Christmas.

 If you are still wanting to find ways to make tax-deductible donations before the end of the year, you can still donate to us or other adoptive families through AdoptTogether. The next step for us to secure resources for airfare to Ethiopia for our first trip.

Thanks for checking in on us! Enjoy the holidays. We'll keep you posted on how to find Christmas in the place with no snow :)

Much love,
Jimmy and Celeste

Great Reads

My other love, Nicholas Kristof, and his wife published a book a few years ago titled Half the Sky; I just noticed that Amazon is running a special for $8.88 for the paperback version. While it's not adoption related, it is one of the most insightful books I have read about the current state of humanity. His ability to prompt readers to understand their role in helping to turn oppression into opportunity for countless women and families is powerful. He weaves together narrative with nonfiction in a way that will make you long to be in the middle of no where working alongside others who are making this world better. I planned on just posting multiple images of the book cover here and telling you to guy it, but it seemed bare without words.





Now I've realized that I can't just suggest one book. I mean really, who buys just one book? You need multiple suggestion. After you addint Half the Sky to your card, then check out There is No Me Without You by Melissa Faye Greene. This gives insight into how one Ethiopian woman has worked to help serve children affected by the AIDS crisis by opening her open to children orphaned by AIDS. Besides telling the story of orphanages in Ethiopia, Greene humorously describes how she stumbled into adoption and gives a pretty eye-opening description of life after adoption. Greene is transparent enough to let readers know that building an adoptive family is not all sunshine and roses like all of your blogs make it look, but she also instills confidence that it is possible to successfully build a family with kiddos from all sorts of backgrounds.

So, this is clearly the most random posting, I really only intended to mention the Kristoff book because it's awesome and on sale, but then I saw a FB post remind me of There is No Me Without You and then I remembered this awesome book. So, I had to squeeze in one last book. This is technically book for teachers, but as I read it, I couldn't help but think that it should be a book for parents. In Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8, Debbie Silver addresses the need for adults to not only let kids fail, but encourage failure as a way to build resiliancy and critical thinking skills.

Happy reading!

Just a Little Freaking Out....

Preface: Like we've said before, the list that other people with our agency use to keep track of who's where in line is unofficial and could be completely wrong.

This week there have been about five or six referrals. We were super-excited for everyone and still prepared for a L-O-N-G wait. Then, today, another family who had a request similar to ours announced that they received their referral. We looked a bit more closely at the list and realized that there are only a handful of families- like three to five- with our exact request ahead of us.

We were definitely prepared to get our referral sometime in like June or September. But, if things keep moving like they did this week, there is a good chance we may recieve our referral in the next few months.

Early on in our journey to start a family, we had a list of everything we needed. Organic diapers and all natural everything and the perfect stroller and a million other tchotchkes. Now, we're in no way prepared for this. No crib... no kid clothes... no toddler bed... no bottles or sippy cups...no organic anything. Here's hoping that our belief that it all works out for good really holds true :)

So, we still have no news, and you shouldn't get your hopes up, but chances are good we might have news way sooner than expected... and we should definitely buy a few sippy cups.... or bottles.... or something.