First Friday Beautiful Blessings

Man oh Man, was I blessed again. I had so much fun last night. First Fridays is our monthly Atlanta Support group and if you ever want to come join us the First Friday of the month, I will clear the weekend for you!

We had a large turn out (over 20 people) for dinner before hand at La Dolce Vita and was able to visit with new and old friends. Always a good thing! Donna had some blogging friends from Augusta visiting so they came as well and I got to see some pics of Miss Faith who will be joining her forever family soon. Lennah's mom is heading to Ethiopia to get Delilah soon and it was wonderful to hear about her plans as well. I was able to visit with Christy and her family too! Fun times and this was just dinner! As you can tell, a lot of these families have blogs as well!

So we headed to the church and we first set up our box for Starfish. We collected some things for Amanda at the Starfish Foster home and learned she would be visiting First Friday early in 2009. August is a slow month for First Friday so we were hoping for at least a few items but FF friends did not disappoint! See the pictures!

We were able to visit with some amazing people there. We have a new friend who is fundraising for her adoption. She wrote a beautiful poem, has it framed and will personalize it with pics from you. You need to see these. If not only for yourself, these are great gifts.

We started with introductions as we had new kids to meet. There was Meron, who has been home from Ethiopia for 5 weeks, Nicklas, who came home from China the same day as Meron and baby Nate who has an amazing story of his own. I love this group!

Next up Michael Perry and Susan Chapman talked about opportunities. We talked about Annabelle's Wish, Starfish Foster Home, G2 Girls and China Tree which is an amazing Chinese school in Kennesaw to teach your children about Chinese culture and language. I can not wait for LynnMarie to get home so we can take part of this. Michael also reminded us about the Starfish story. The more I am reminded, the more I want to help, one child or family at a time! Love that story, the fact that each one of has the ability to help someone is amazing!

Then time for more socializing and meeting new people. We had so much fun we were one of the last families to leave!

Honestly, we do not deserve this community. These are some of the people who will be welcoming LynnMarie home. They love us and have such a love for children and international adoption.
We also had the promise of what is the most unselfish,giving gift from some wonderful friends. I can not wait to share it with you.

Monday Meditations

Good morning friends! There are so many things going on. Many people are in China and many families getting ready to go to China! let me know if there is anything to add!

Praises

1. Families have met their babies this week

2.God is good and His timing is perfect

3.Friends that we have made during this journey

4.UPDATE: Shelbys family will be leaving 10/31 to bring her home. They got TA today! Yipppee!

Prayer requests

1. Shelby's familiy is getting close to welcoming her home

2.CCAA

3.Our agencies

4.That all of us will stay encouraged

5.Our family and friends

6.That people will continue to adopt both domestically and internationally

7.Our babies-that they will be a blessing to all who come in contact with them

8. Families who are home- pray for the adjustment time

On that note, our support group is this Friday! First Fridays will be meeting at 7pm at North Metro Church. Let me know if you are interested in going. Families will be there who are thinking about adopting, presently adopting and families that are already home. Its just a wonderful time!!!!! Its such a wonderful time!!!!

First Friday

What to say... Last night was our monthly First Friday gathering. Its a monthly adoption support group that's hosted by the Chapmans. What a wonderful couple. To go back to how we met them. After our Disney Cruise 2 years ago, a couple gave me the Chapmans number. Well Susan called me one day and just gave me the name of our agency, who I had never heard of. It was exacly what we were looking for. That phone call led to our application that led to our LID. Susan also invited us to First Friday which opened the door to so many new friends.

Last night was our last meeting at their house!Why? Because we have outgrown it..How cool is that? We will be meeting at North Metro Church. If you live anywhere near Atlanta, I hope you will take some time to check it out!

It was once again a special time. We have been attending for one year now. Our first meeting was the week before we turned in our application. Its been a great way to meet friends and to gather support for this journey.

We have watched people wait for their babies, get their referrals, travel and come home. Its been awesome. This is such an important part of our journey and we are going to be much more prepared when we travel for LynnMarie.

If you have read our blog, you know that we have been praying for Sheridan and his family. We got to meet him last night. he is just wonderful. He is 2 and so fun!! It was nice to see him. We were also able to say hello to Laney who has been home for a bit.

There were more China babies that I had not met yet. We were also able to have some time to visit and get to know people on a personal level. I wished I could visit with them more than once a month. I have learned so much. It was truly another wonderful evening and I look forward to the growth. I also look forward to the tears, because they are usually happy tears.

Adoption brings out emotions that I had no idea I had. I wish I could explain the connection I have with these new friends. If you are even thinking about adoption, i hope you will consider attending. It's truly a blessing.

You will hear much more about First Friday. When I started my personal blog almost 2 years ago, I talked about finding a passion about something. I never would have thought my passion would be international adoption. God is good. We prayed for friends. I can not describe the new friends in my life or what they mean to me. I really can not imagine not being in this process right now!!!

Dinner,Friends, Support, Quilt Squares

Tonight was our monthly support group at the Chapmans or as its called "First Friday". We started the evening with dinner at a Mexican restaurant with the Kim and Michael and Tymm and Laura. Its amazing how many friends we have made during this process.
Next off we headed to our gathering and who did I see at the door? It was Miss Laney! Yes Miss Laney was there, after only being home for a few days. Many of you have read me talk about her and some of you read her blog over the past few weeks. Call me emotional, but I felt some tears when I saw her with her mommy. You see..Laney is the first baby we have seen come home after watching the process..Seeing her was precious. A fun time was had by all, starting to really get to know some friends and even got 2 new quilt squares!

There were actually several babies there and I wish I had been able to meet them all. I met some new people and visited with other families.

There is one lady who always encourages me. She is a mom and is happy and positive and loves Jesus. Just talking to her brings me a sense of peace.

Visiting with these families is such an encouragement each month. Families who attend are in all stages from those paperchasing to families who are home with their children!!!

A lot of families saw their baby's face for the first time today. Congrats to you all!

Perhaps a picture tomorrow...

First Friday

Last night Michael and I had a sort of date night. After watching this weeks ER, we headed to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. After our dinner, we proceeded to go to our First Friday gathering, which has been a great support for the adoption process. We met a new China baby, celebrated with a couple who recently got a referral of their little boy (they were expecting a girl) and got to know people who were also in the waiting stages. I have enjoyed this greatly and I wish everyone lived closer so that we could spend more time with them.

The family who opens their home for First Friday usually talks a little bit and answers some questions. I am happy to say that after a few months, we actually participated and received some hope. Even though it was a smaller crowd, I am really glad that we went!

So this week, we we will be sending Michaels birth certificate back to Maryland to get it notarized and authenticated, we get finger printed on Valentines day and the wait for the most wanted piece of paper, the I-171!