USCIS Approval!!

We received our approval to adopt from the USCIS(US citizenship and Immigration Services) today! We were fingerprinted for this and applied back in February. There was a small little glitch in our application, so thankfully it has been taken care of. Technically, we didn't have to have this until we traveled, but it is quite a relief that is is taken care of.

The only thing that we are waiting on now is our court date in Ethiopia. It is very uncertain when this could happen. At the least it will probably be a month till they tell us the date. If we were to pass court on the first try, we would go pick up the boys in 6 weeks.

We just got some fabulous pictures of the boys from our friend Hollie. She recently picked up her little girl Maddie from Ethiopia. She is a photographer, so it just doesn't get any better! I was on an adoption high for a couple days after getting the pictures. They are such beautiful boys! I think my favorite picture is of Hollie holding Kenenissa. It made it so real! I wish I could post the pics for everyone, but we can't until we pass court. If you see me , ask to see the pics!

Primal Scream Theology from Russell Moore on Vimeo.

Justin - Here is a sermon from Highview. Some friends of our who go there suggested we check it out. This sermon really touched us and we hope you will view it.

Watch Lightning's Adoption Story

Lightning Ahlers - My Adoption Story from The Ahlers Family on Vimeo.

This is a video of a young man that we met at our first adoption conference. Hearing their story planted the seed for us to adopt from Africa and we are very thankful. We hope you enjoy this video and that it blesses you.

Camp Freedom

Justin and I have just returned from Camp and are completely exhausted! Totally worth it though! Camp Freedom is a weekend camp through the disabilities ministry of our church. We have been going for 4 years now. Justin actually asked me out on a date after camp 3 years ago, so it is a pretty special place for us.
We had such a great time. We swam, played basketball, sang, had smores around the campfire, and learned about our unique abilities that God has given each of us. Our team was so great. It is so much fun seeing the campers year after year.
On Saturday some friends, Brent and Holly, were coming home with their new little girl from Ethiopia so we took a few hours off camp to go to the airport. It was so great! It was so neat seeing her with her new brothers and sisters. While in Ethiopia, Brent and Holly went to visit our boys in the orphanage. They were able to play with them and take lots of pictures. Our boys were in a different orphanage than their daughter, so it was quite humbling that they took time out of their trip to check on our boys. I can't wait to see the pictures!!
Time for bed now. Early I know, but didn't get much sleep this weekend!

Yard Sale

We had a great yard sale on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who came. Our awesome friends Donnie and Amanda came by on Friday night. They brought us some great things to sell, helped us set up, and Donnie helped us with our marketing! Thank you guys!

We have never had a yard sale before so didn't really know what to expect. We didn't price anything, just asked people to pay what they thought it was worth. People were very generous. A couple taking a walk gave us a great donation and many others donated without even buying anything. A very sweet little boy gave us a bag of coins, it was very touching! We raised much more money than we expected.

It was great meeting people from the area. So many people had adoption stories. Some had adopted children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends, and we even met a few people who were adopted themselves! It was quite an uplifting day! God is good!

Yard Sale!!!

We will be having a yard sale to raise funds for our adoption. It will be this June 13 from 8:00-2:00. 9605 Long Rifle LN, Louisville KY 40228. Love to see you there!

Things that make me happy

We went to our first Tuesday Family Fellowship at our Agency this week. This is a meeting for all the families adopting with Arise. We usually talk about the process and learn more about Ethiopia and it's culture. Here, I met someone who was able to talk to our boys when she was in Ethiopia a couple months ago. This was very exciting and made it so much more real! She said that they were sweet and very quiet.
There were a few people from Ethiopia at the meeting. I was hoping to find out some info from them on the boys names. We actually found out that Kenessisa's name is actually Kenenisa. We thought this was possible since we have seen it spelled multiple ways. Still no luck on their name meanings.
We found some new pictures of the boys on the snapfish account last night. There were some really great pics of Chera. He was smiling, acting silly and playing with an adopting family. It is great to see him acting like a kid!