because orange is my favorite color.

We changed the logo a smidgen....wanted to make it a little simpler! Thank you to my wonderfully patient friend Misty for letting me change my mind a gazillion times. 

AND if you haven't registered yet (which I know you haven't), stop on over HERE and sign up!! 

I promise it will be so much fun! 

Also, still needing volunteers and sponsors if you feel led to do so!! Please pray about how you can help! Thank you friends!!!

will move buttons for free...

God is moving mightily for the orphans in Ethiopia. There has been an incredible increase of adoptions coming out of Ethiopia in the last few years. God is stirring the hearts of His people to move to action for those abandoned children. Which is awesome, right?
Well, here is the sad news (the news I eluded to a few posts ago). For some reason, this influx in adoption in ET is cause for concern. The US wants to know why it is so easy. Is the ET government "rubber stamping" adoptions? (cause you know, it should be hard to rescue a child out of poverty and all...) Without going into a whole lot of detail. We were told last week by our agency (and then by another, and another.....I wanted to really make sure) that adoptions in Ethiopia are on shaky ground. Things are going slower and slower. There is now more required paper work. Longer waits for court dates. Longer time to get approved for child visas, etc.  Applications CLOSED to adopting girls.
I kind of knew all of that part and had just kind of thought that it was par for the course.
The next part, however, was a little more unexpected. What we were told was basically this....we could continue with the process, but would run the risk of getting done with our part and then Ethiopian adoptions could shut down (which is what all three agents felt like was going to happen, they all felt like ET will shut down before we got very far in our process.) We would be out time. money. and a child.

I was sad. Confused. What did this mean? Were we meant to stick it out? Were we meant to look elsewhere? But Ethiopia seemed so clear to me from the beginning. Had this changed? What do we do.....

We spent the following days praying and talking about what we felt like God was telling us through this. We had started this whole process in September and because of what one agency told me, we had paused all paperwork, etc because we thought our addition had to be completed before our home study could happen (which I have since found out is NOT the case). We could have been 6 months in already! Ugh!!
 This was frustration for me. This was clarity for Mitch. God had used that sweet, ill-informed lady to keep us waiting. Waiting for the right plan. The one to our child. And as we have since realized, our child will not come from Ethiopia. He/she will come from Uganda.
Yes, that's right. A whole different country. A whole different agency. A whole different plan. And we are pretty excited.

God led me to an agency with a new pilot program (started in September) in Uganda shortly after I found out about ET. Uganda neighbors Ethiopia to the Southwest, for those of you that didn't know. The process is similar, but a lot quicker. You cannot choose the gender of the child, which Mitch and I both agreed was better.  Families that started the program in September are already traveling at the end of this month to get their child!
When I first heard that, I had two different thoughts.
1- "Yay! That is super quick!!!"
2- "Grrr. Now why didn't we know about this then? we could be on that plane!".
And God said this (through some help from his ever faithful servant, my hubby)...
"Nope Katie. That was not the plan. Your heart wasn't ready for what I want to bring you. You were dead set on a girl. That might not be the plan. And I know you are okay with that now. So, stop trying to put me in a box ("check here for boy, check here for girl"). I will bring you the child I had picked out for you before you even knew I had called you to adopt. It might be a girl, but it might be a boy. It might be a baby or it might be two years old, I know what you can handle and I know what is the perfect fit for your family. You said yes to my call, so stop being picky and let me show you the one I have chosen for you."

Yes, sir.

So, here we go. On a new adventure! Home study starts this week or next. That process should be about a month. Then we wait for approval from the agency. Then....we wait for the child (eeek!!). Then, once we get a referral, we get our dossier together for the Uganda courts, make plans to travel and then go get this missing piece of my heart. The cost will be about the same. Which means we are still pretty far from meeting our goal. But, God willing, with our upcoming fundraiser (don't forget to register for the race!! over there to the right at the top of the page!!!) and some penny pinching, it can happen.

The picture we took in September ("we are adopting a little sister from Ethiopia") and the shirts we made may need to change, but the heart behind them is the same. We were called to bring another child home. Girl or boy. Ethiopia or Uganda. God had some lessons to teach us. He had to wait on us to learn them. But, now we hope we are on the right path and are excited to see will happen now.

And,speaking of those shirts....all you sweet friends who bought them to help us raise a little money...... if you want me to....I will move your buttons a little southwest for free. :)

Get your running shoes on......

Hello my friends! Wow! What a difference a few days can make! The last I wrote I was in the midst of a flu epidemic at my house and had just heard some very sad news (which I will share in my next post, I promise). What a downer that day was :/ Thank you for your prayers, as we are seeing healthier kids and mamas here at home and have a renewed joy and excitement about our adoption journey (BIG changes which I will share in my next post....I promise :) ).

But, on to the point of this super exciting post........

Back in the fall when we were discussing different ways we could raise the money to bring this child home, we briefly discussed the idea of having a small race (well, actually I said small, Mitch said triathlon....cause he's crazy). We discussed this idea with some of our precious friends who also had adoption on their hearts at the time. We decided it was a great idea!!....and then kind of let it go.

Fast forward to December. I began thinking about it again and all of a sudden this light went off. Why just stop at one race? Why not let God start something BIG?  Sure, we can put God in a box and raise a little money for our own adoption. OR we could let God do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine (Eph 3:20) and begin something that could affect many families, not just our own. 

What if we made this race an annual race and each year a different family/families benefit from it? 

How many orphans could we help bring home? 

And so....One Less 5K/3K was born....

(thank you to my sweet talented friend, Misty for creating our logo!)

Through some late night pizza, to-do lists, research, timelines, and laughter, this little race became a BIG dream for us and our sweet friends, the Petersons (who by the way are beginning their process of adopting a child Internationally as well!! Follow their journey on the link above!). 

So, here are the details...

When is the race?         May 14, 2011 (yep...that soon! Mark your calendars!)

Where is the race?        Joshua Springs Park and Preserve (for those Boerne/San Antonio folk it is a new park across from the Waring/Welfare exit, just past PoPo's. )It is a Kendall County Park and is still under development and closed to the public. BUT we are able to have our race there, and let me tell you....it is going to be beautiful in May! I can't wait!!

What kind of race is it?      We have a rather challenging 5K course and for those of you that enjoy running and competition, it is sure to be a good run! 

 Don't love running and/or competition?? Then the 3K is for YOU!! It is a run/walk (whatever you choose!) and a KIDS RUN (ages 6 and up can compete in the kids run). Want to walk as a family with a stroller? DO IT! Want to compete against your friends in speed-walking and laugh the whole time? DO IT! The 3K is sure to be loads of fun!

How do I register?     We have registered our race with Active.com to help us with the logistics of it all. This site takes the registration info, and then prints out rosters, etc for us for the actual race. This is the link to our actual race, so GO REGISTER!!!....

ONE LESS 5K/3K     

How can I help?         Wow, where do I begin......We have many ways you can help! 

---We are going to be relying mostly on sponsorships and donations to make this thing a reality. We are in the process of partnering with a non-profit organization so donations will be tax-deductible. We have written a sponsorship letter and have included a sponsorship/donation form to give to local businesses that might want to help fund this race. So, basically what I am asking is (as uncomfortable and against my nature as it is) we need some sweet precious souls who would be willing to commit to contacting 3 or 4 businesses they might have some sort of connection with, and asking them if they would be willing to sponsor this event (gulp. I don't know why, but that seems so intimidating to me..) 

As part of their sponsorship, their names/logo would go on the back of the event t-shirt as well as the ability for them to put their own signage up at the race. If you are interested in being one of these precious angel souls, please contact me via email (katiefickey@yahoo.com) and let me know, and I can give you the sponsor letters/forms.

---We also need volunteers for the actual race day. We need people willing to give up a Saturday morning (yes, I know it will be baseball season) to hand cups of water to runners, hand out race packets, stand along the trails and direct people, direct parking, and the list goes on and on. If you are interested in this, please let me know and I will give you a job!!! (Oh, and you get a volunteer tshirt as well! Totally worth it then, right? :) )

---Pray for us and the event. This is crunch time. Most races are organized at least 6 months ahead, and we are far from that. We have most of the details ironed out, but the actual logistics of it could be a nightmare, and I want it to be a joy. Pray that God moves in the hearts of the local people to give generously. Pray for our community to be reached for the sake of the orphans of this world. We feel like this could be something big if we trust in God to do the stirring. I would love to be able to look back in 15 years and see all the different families this race and this community helped bring home. Maybe even your child???? Don't shake your head! It could happen to you!! One year ago I would have shaken (shook??) my head too. :)

Ok, so I have lots more exciting news to post. (Like BIG. EXCITING. NEWS.) But it will have to wait for another day :)

Please consider what your role in this (I hesitate to say "movement" because it sounds so presumptuous, but God willing, it will be!) thing is. I am excited to see how God is going to move! Come be a part of it!!

wondering....

When talking to our new (probable) agency today, I found out some information that troubles my heart a little. I don't really want to go into details right now, but Mitch and I need you to pray for us. We are now faced with some pretty big decisions that could change everything for us.  We want to make the right decision and want to follow God's will and not our own (which in reality, is pretty hard...just being honest) and also need to make this decision within the next few days.
So, please pray for us to hear God's voice quickly (I know, it's all in His time anyway, but right now I am begging for a timely answer) and clearly.  Thank you sweet friends :)

We also have some exciting things planned for the very near future as far as fundraising goes, but can't give a whole lot of details on that either (super informative post, eh? are you wondering why you even bothered reading it?....) It's not like it's top secret or anything, we are just trying to get the details hammered out so we don't misinform anyone. Little hint?? 5K/3K

Saw this video today almost immediately after having that somewhat troublesome convo with our agent. It gave my heart some reassurance to see it. Adoption is not always the answer for orphaned children, but for us it is the one God called us to. What is He calling you to?


Ethiopian Orphans from Simon Scionka on Vimeo.

patience or action....

We have not disappeared. I know it's been a while since our last post, but we are still here. Not much has changed in the adoption process department. 

As I am typing this, I can hear Mitch's hammer and saws through the walls of our existing house as he works away his Saturday on the addition. I love him and his commitment to not only provide daily for our family, but also help fulfill our dream of a bigger house for a bigger family. 

I am convinced that there are not many men in this world that would work a pretty laborious job all day, then come home only to labor some more on his own house until there is just no daylight left and the flood lights he has are no longer enough, have just enough time to eat, play with his kids a little, shower, go to bed, and then get up and do it all over again. 6 days a week. And do it all (well, mostly....he's not perfect you know...) with a steady, giving heart. 

I know when he started this addition many, many months ago, he had no idea (I didn't either) that God would eventually fill it with another child from across the world. It has been a painful journey for us. It has burdened us financially more than we ever thought possible, it has stolen time from us as a family, it has made us not-so-popular with the neighbors, and it has been the root of most of the arguments and stress we have had over the last year and a half. 

BUT, all of that is nothing in the grander scheme of things, we know. It is still a thorn in our side, but for different reasons. It is the one thing (besides the whole money thing...) that is keeping us from moving forward with the adoption. 

So, this is where this brings me today.....

We are currently praying through the possibility of changing agencies. We are not committed to the one we had previously chosen, because they had told us to not even bother sending in our formal application and fees until we were done with the addition. Which kind of makes sense, but is kind of frustrating as well. We know that once the paperwork business starts, it will still be AT LEAST 9 months until we would get a referral for a child. So, of course the addition would be finished way before that time. So, it has been a little frustrating knowing that we can't even begin a home study until we are completely finished with the addition. (sidenote......our existing house is completely finished and safe. We will not open our house to the addition until the very end of the construction, so there is no open framing or exposed wiring right now or anything like that that would make our home dangerous).

So, while this has all been churning in my head for months now, I have recently been thinking that maybe it is our specific agency that we have chosen that is being the stickler. Maybe not. But....maybe??

After some reading and researching, we have found another agency that may work with us a little bit more. I am not totally sure, but I am hopeful. 

I laid in bed last night begging God to close this door too if he was really using this waiting time for a reason....to grow and change us and prepare our hearts for this child. 

But, I also begged Him that if it was His will, that He would show us favor in regards to the agency's leniency in our home study.  

I don't know His answer yet (after all, it hasn't even been 24 hours.....see? maybe I am supposed to be learning patience in all this...) but will you join me in praying this for our family? I will be speaking to the new agency this coming week and will know more after that. But, in the mean time, will you pray for God to show us what He wants. 

Patience? 

or Action? 

Both are equally important, I think. I just want my eagerness to be of Him and not myself. 

I also am asking for you to be praying about a possible fundraiser that we are working through. It would be quite an undertaking, but I feel like God has given us this big giant dream for it, and I would love for Him to see it to fruition. 

I am so VERY grateful for some of the people God has put in our lives lately. I realized today that God ordained some of these special friendships for this specific time in our lives and I'm not sure what we would do without those who have come beside us on this journey (including our wonderful, loving, and supportive families). 

Thank you for your love and support and prayer. 

status

First of all...have I shared this picture with you yet? 

Those of you that have ordered shirts or given donations have already gotten it, but I thought I would share it with everyone else too.....

(you can enlarge it by clicking on the picture)

I can't wait to take that same picture again. Only with a precious little one in that seat.

So..........our status???

Still. trying. to. finish. our. house.

Yep. Believe it or not, that's it. Mitch is working hard and trying to get it done quickly, but his free time seems to be limited lately. Realistically, it will probably be another two months before it's done. Which means another two months before our home study. Which means another two months before this whole process can really get up and running. In all honesty, it is hard sometimes to know that we could already be 4 months into this process if it wasn't for this crazy project we started two years ago, never knowing what all it would entail. Ugh. 

But, in the end, I know it will be worth it. 

We will have a bigger house to be able to fill with more kids!!! :)

In the meantime.....we are still doing fundraising and praying fervently for our child. Please continue to pray for her, and us, as well.

AND.....please watch this video. It's about 8 minutes long, but it is worth it. It is a perfect reminder of God's true plan for the orphan and fatherless.....and any one of God's children that is hurting and in need. 

Be strong....and courageous....

I stumbled across this video today. And cried. So many things touched my heart in it. Take a few minutes and watch it please. I know it looks like a cartoon and has the possibility of being cheesy. But watch it, it's worth it.....















Hope is Fading – Orphan Sunday from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo.


Now, we will not walk up to an orphanage and "choose" a child.  That's not really how that works most of the time. There won't be a little big-eyed girl waiting by a window hoping she is pretty enough for us.

But, the symbolism of this video is correct.....

We, as privileged Americans (and yes, that means us...who are by NO means wealthy), have a choice. We have a choice to either help save an orphan from a love-less life,

 or choose to pretend they don't exist. 

When God spoke to us about adoption, as scary and intimidating as all that was (and still is), we could have said no. We had that choice. No one was forcing that upon us. There was all of a sudden this big, scary cliff and we could either choose to jump....or choose to turn around and head back to a safer place.

There are times now that I can't believe we chose to jump. My husband is not a jumper. He might make it down the cliff eventually, but he does so by scaling the rocks with ropes and harnesses and helmets. But, this time...he jumped. We jumped. And the funny thing about a cliff is (are you tired of this metaphor yet?) that there is no way to get back up. You make the decision to "jump" and your journey becomes God's and not yours.

So, I want to encourage you today that if God is speaking to your heart about adoption or foster care (which my sweet friend knows a lot about and can give you info if you are interested), even if it's just a whisper......please, don't ignore it.

Here is your cliff. You can choose to jump and rescue a precious life or you can choose to turn around and head back to your nice and comfy existence. I know it's scary. I say that in the midst of the scary. But, I also know that there is a reason God has softened your heart to that and what He wants from you is obedience. That's it. He will carry you through those scary moments. He will figure out the hard stuff. (I am telling myself this as much as you!!)

There are 147 million orphans in the world. One less doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But, I want you to do something. I want you to watch that video again and picture that sweet little big-eyed cartoon character as your daughter. Or your son. Does it break your heart more to picture your little one, who you adore and dote over.... all by themselves.....waiting?    Waiting for someone to love them?

Caring for orphans is a reflection of what God has done for you and me. He has rescued us from a pit and has adopted us as heirs in the Kingdom of God.

It is the heart of God that we care for the fatherless....the orphans.....

The helpless put their trust in you. You are the defender of orphans . . . . Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will listen to their cries and comfort them. 

Psalm 10:14, 17

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

God's heart is also for you, dear friend. He will not leave you.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9

Joshua 1:9 happened to be Sam's memory verse a couple of weeks ago from church. Memory verse for a 2 yr old, you say? Yeah, that's what I thought too. But, one day in the middle of HEB, he started quoting the first part of Joshua 1:9. He now says it all the time. It is just about the cutest thing ever and I love how he says/yells "be strong and dageous.........joshua.....joshua...9 9 9!!!!" But besides the cuteness factor, it also seems like God was trying to figure out a way to make me hear it over and over again. 

And maybe you too????

So, I know this was kind of a "soap box" post. But, I felt like God was telling me to write it. Even if it is just for one person out there considering adoption or foster care. I hope it was encouraging to you. 

Be strong and courageous!!!!!!! :)