Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Ethan & Emma!

We have been very busy these last few weeks celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, as well as Ethan's 11th and Emma's 9th birthday. We hope you have all had a very Merry Christmas. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to wait for Eliza.

Referrals are Arriving!

The referrals are on the way and the CCAA has updated their site. They have made it to December 14, 2005. That means that we are either going to get ours in one month or two. WE ARE NEXT, NEXT! Congrats to all the families receiving theirs now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We hope yours has been one full of the blessings of family. We had visitors last week for Grandparent's Day at the school.
Faith had our friends Claude & Nancy visit with her.
Emma's class put on a play with Grandma Becker visiting.
Ethan enjoyed the company of Grandma & Grandpa Zimmerman.

The Latest on China

They have officially matched into December of 2005! According to the CCAA they are now matched to December 8,2005. We could see a referral anytime between December 2007 and March 2008. We are praying to see Eliza's little face soon.

Harvest Party Time!

It's time for some Harvest Party fun and we found ourselves leaving the house with a football player, Hannah Montana, and a doctor. Emma informed us that if Ethan pulled a muscle or Faith passed out on stage she would be able to help them :). It was another night of fun and excitement. Next year we should have our little one home to join the fun.

Blazer's Fanfest

We had a lot of fun going to "meet the team" at the Rose Garden. It was a real treat to see them scrimage up close.

Pumpkin Patch Time

We had a lot of fun this past weekend at Baggenstos. It's been a tradition in our family to go pumpkin picking there for at least 5 years.

Football & Visitors

This last weekend we were blessed to have Great Grandpa visit all the way from Oklahoma. He came with Grandma and Grandpa Zimmerman to watch our little man play football.

Another Month Down

The referrals are out for October and we are once again disappointed. It has been a rough week. They have now matched parents and children through November 30, 2005. We were hoping and praying for more progress than that. It is comforting to rest in the fact that God's timing is perfect. He is certainly teaching us a lot during this time.

Please keep us in your prayers. Also, pray for Lucy (our airedale). We recently found out that she has bad hips. She is only 15 months old so this has caught us by surprise. We will be taking her to a specialist on the 10th to find out more. We do know that we do not want to do surgery.

LUCY UPDATE

We took Lucy to the specialist and the news wasn't great. Her hip sockets are tilted away from her ball joints and the bones are grating on each other. We are now going to start her on some vitamins, monitor her weight, and limit her activity. We are praying she will have a few years before we have to consider anything else.

Back to School

It's that time of year again. The kids are back to school. Lucy is pretty upset to lose her "kids" during the day. She spends a lot of time pining away for them. Here's to another great year of learning and growing!

CCAA Update

AUGHHHHH!!!!!!! There, I got it out. The referrals have been sent and they got through 4 more days. They are now up to November 25,2005. With our LID of December 26, 2005, we are looking at three months or longer before we see our baby girl's face. Congratulations to all who are getting their referrals this month. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to wait. :]

Summer Fun

We had a lot of fun playing at the Family Fun Center in Wilsonville.

We played miniature golf,

went on bumper boats,

rode go carts,

and bounced on the sling shot.

Happy 7th Birthday Faith!

This last few days have been full of celebrating at our house. On August 7th at 12:10 pm Faith officially turned 7. She had a party at The Gymnest, a BBQ with all of her grandparents, and a dinner out with us. From the start of the adoption she would tell me her sister would come home when she(Faith)was 7. Here's to praying she was right!

Zoo Fun

We had a lot of fun at the zoo with our friends Jamie and Katie.
Say cheese!
Two friends out for a stroll.
We have to get every last bit of cinnamon and sugar from our elephant ear.

August Referrals Arrived

The CCAA has sent out referrals for this month. They made it 7 more days to Novemver 21, 2005. If they keep going at this pace we will be getting a referral in about 5 months. Keep us in your prayers. This wait can be tough on all of us.

We're Off to the Fair!

We had a lot of fun at the county fair. Daddy spent the afternoon working in the Dairy Women's ice cream booth to earn money for the school while the kids and I did some exploring.


Yes, Ethan is milking a fake cow.
Our favorite part of the day was watching the draft horses compete. This group has one named Emma and one named Grace.

Playing in the box.

We recently bought a new patio set. Well this meant we got a really big box. Of course we had to turn it into a house.







I love this picture of Emma. Not many people see the silly side of her. I don't remember why she was laughing so hard. Isn't it beautiful!

Referral Update

The CCAA website has been updated for this batch of referrals. They are now up to November 14, 2005. They made it through another 7 days. If they continue to go 7 days at a time, with a LID of December 26, 2005, we will see a referral in Jan/Feb of 2008. Here's praying they will speed up!

Happy 4th of July!

We went to the annual 4th of July parade in Hillsboro. We've been going for about ten years. Here are the kids waiting for it to start.

This is Ethan's friend Jake chugging a soda before the parade.

Thank you to all the soldiers who make our freedom possible. May God continue to bless our country and may we strive to put Him first.

Going to Grandma & Grandpa's

This last weekend we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house to celebrate an early 4th of July. While we were there we met our newest niece Reanon who was adopted by my oldest brother and his wife. She's the tall blonde behind the wagon.

Kevin, my brother Matt's youngest, just woke up from his nap. Isn't he cute!

My parents had a tree fall on their house in December so the landlord decided to cut down some of the other ones around the house.

My dad and the kids climbed on top of the tree. Just for a reference my dad is around 6'2".

Reptiles!

Today we got to go and see Reptile Man at the library. As you can see Ethan got right into it.



In this picture you can see the back of Emma and Faith as they pet the python.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad ever!

"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" Ephesians 6:4

Thanks for teaching us about Jesus!

Our Favorite things about Dad:

Ethan: He plays football and video games with us.(and he's a stat nerd)

Emma: He's fun to play with.

Faith: He likes to play with us and he pretend wrestles with us.

WE LOVE YOU, DADDY!!!!!

Eliza's Room

From the time we started this process we debated about when to set up the baby's room. We thought we were close to getting her picture a few months ago so we went ahead and set her room up. It turned out we were wrong about getting her picture but it has been nice to be able to spend time in her room praying for her. The girls have been known to go in and play with her toys. They say they are practicing for when she comes home.

The lady bugs and vine around the room were all painted by Toby. How special to have a room painted by Daddy! We put our family on a red thread in the windowsill because of an ancient chinese proverb.

"An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circimstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break."

Lucy & Sisko

What better to get your mind off the wait than a new puppy? We already had one dog, a Lhasa Ahpso named Sisko, but the kids really wanted a dog they could play ball with. {Anyone familiar with Lhasas knows they just don't like to fetch.} After much consideration and begging--we got Lucy, a sweet Airedale with tons of personality. She is now eleven months old and a great fit for our family. Sisko and her are very close. She loves to snuggle even though she is pretty big. Any time one of us is laying on the floor it doesn't take her long to come and "spoon" us.

Ethan, Emma, & Faith

As you can see we have three beautiful children. They are also anxiously awaiting their new sister. They have been unbelievaly patient so far. She is never very far from their thoughts. Faith is very excited for the day when she is finally a big sister.

Where We're At In The Process

Two years ago in March we started our "paper chase". In December 2005 our dossier was sent to China (DTC). It was officially logged in on December 26, 2005 (LID). This is an important date because that is essentially our space in line. The CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) matches families to babies in the order they are logged in unless it is a special needs adoption or you are of Chinese heritage. As of today the CCAA has matched families logged in up to November 7, 2005.

We do not have a match to a baby yet (a referral). We don't know how soon we will get a referral. It's hard to predict how fast or slow the CCAA will go. Lately it seems like they are going slow.

I guess it's a good thing God is making us wait longer or we wouldn't have time to do this blog.

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" Romans 11:33

How it all started.

To say that the desire to adopt started when we filled out the paperwork two years ago would not be true. We have found that God started working in our hearts to adopt (specifically from China) before we even had biological children. I don't pretend to understand the ways of God. All I know is the more I get to know Him the more he changes my heart.

"Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

The more time I spend getting to know my Lord, I find that my selfish desires give way to desires that only could come from Him. I love that He doesn't just take away those desires and leave me out there searching for new ones that are just as sinful--He gives me new ones that are pure and good.

Not only has He planted the seeds of this adoption; He has also knit Eliza in our hearts. She is not born of our flesh but she is born of our hearts. Only God can touch a heart this way.

Can you tell I'm amazed by Him? My prayer is that you will be too.