DTE!!!

For those of you who don't know DTE is short for Date To Ethiopia and we have ours. Our paper work left yesterday 6/17/2011. This is the date our agency uses to track where we are in line and help predict when we could get a referral ect. Ethiopia has made a lot of changes lately, and changes usually mean a slow down in the adoption process. Please pray for us and our children as await their homecoming.

In a totally different topic, all three older boys learned to ride a bike Monday! They are so proud of themselves!

Blessings,
Leigha

It's in the mail!

If all goes well, and please pray it does, our paperwork will be leaving for Ethiopia on Fri. I can't wait to get on to the next step, I have been more impatient than ever with this adoption.

On a completely different note here's what happens when dad says you can dress yourself:

Yes we went out to eat like this. One child ago, I would have never let them out the door in such a mismatched state, but well something has got to give when you have four kids and hopefully two more on the way.

Blessings,
Leigha

Finish in site!

Hey All,
I know I've been AWOL for a while now. I really will try to do better. Today is my birthday and our dossier is almost complete. The best present EVER would be to get this dossier finished and out of my hands. I hope to be able to send it to our agency by the end of the week. The paper work has been such a long process this time, and the wait time for referral is unknown right now with all the changes Ethiopia has made. Please join in praying our children home. God has reminded me of the parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1-8. Go look it up if you can't remember it. Here are a few of verses I'm clinging to, 6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly...
Praying and believing for swift justice.
Blessings, Leigha

Here is the most recent picture of our family, seems we never get a family picture taken until one is required for a post-placement visit or a home study update (ha ha). Oh well it keeps us pushing on toward the prize, our children, those home and those not yet here. This vs. seems to sum it up perfectly: Isaiah 60:11 Your gates will always stand open, they will never shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth (children are our true wealth) of the nations...

Many of you have been asking me about our adoption and where were at with it. So here is a little update. We are currently "paper chasing" and yes it takes awhile especially if your me. I was all geared up this time to gather everything quickly and send it off as soon as possible, but as some of you who have encountered adoptions before know, that sometimes no matter how hard you try to move at lightning speed it always seems to turn into a snails pace. I'm doing better with it than I have in the past. I know that God is orchestrating the timing perfectly so that our paper work and our child(rens) paperwork come together at exactly the right time. So when paperwork gets lost in the mail or you use the wrong medical form for the wrong agency and have to go back and get it redone, yes both happened, you grit you teeth and smile telling your self repeatedly that it all happens in Gods timing. We are asking for two children this time, they could be unrelated but it is unlikely. We would like one to be older than Isaac 1 1/2, and younger than Sam 4, and the other child will be younger than Isaac. Two children aren't always available especially when you limit the age ranges like we have, so are agency would like to be prepared to adopt just one child if that is all that is available at that time. I would like to get two children this time, but at the same time, I know how hard the first few months are with just one new child so I'm happy to leave that decision up to God because he knows what's best for our family. No we are not being specific about gender this time around, but for those of you longing to see some pink in the Singleton house, know this for sure it will happen, I'm just not sure when.
Here are a few more pictures you might like!

Lessons from: Land Before Time

Ever heard of it? Well here at the Singleton household it's been a favorite a number of times. Owen and Abe LOVED it when they were three and four! Sam however, just discovered it a couple of months ago. So every morning after breakfast he begins asking to watch "his show", his favorite right now is #2, The Big Freeze. I hear bits and pieces as I work around the house. In this particular episode a spike tail herd passes through the "great valley" where Spike and Ducky live. Ducky is a swimmer and Spike is a spike tail, of course. Anyway, Spikes birth family has all passed away and Ducky's mother adopts Spike. WELL when the spike tails migrate through the valley a well meaning spike tailed mother offers to have Spike come for a visit, she thinks he might enjoy being with others that are like him. Spike is eager and curious and heads off with the spike tailed family. Ducky's mother is hesitant, yet she let's him go. Ducky is not at all happy with Spike, he is mad that Spike would want anything but his family. At the end of the movie Spike is in danger and immediately Ducky's mother saves him without thought to her own safety and the spike tailed mother admits that truly Ducky's mother is the only mother for Spike.

As I was listening to the movie and thinking about a conversation I had with another mother considering adoption, it all seemed to come together in my mind. She was asking lots of questions about culture and wanting to know how we incorporate our kids culture now that were home and in America. And to be totally honest I'm not sure that we do an excellent job of it, but I'm not sure that is what is really important. Do we talk about ET and Colombia and have visible signs of their countries around the house? Of course. But do they really grasp their culture? No, probably not. Do we try to instill in them a love and pride for their birth countries? Yes! But where they're from isn't as important as where they're going. God is using their past to shape them into the people he has called them to be for the good works he has prepared for them in advance to do. So maybe we should be more focused on teaching them to follow hard after God and not worry so much about culture. And if you really believe that God is calling you to adopt, be certain, be very certain in your own mind that no you won't get everything right and yes some well meaning "spike tail' might imply that your child would be better off in his or her own culture or race, but I disagree. God chose our children for us before the beginning of time and no one will ever convince me otherwise. Do I understand the pain and heartache it has caused for God to orchestrated their placement in our home? No I don't and my heart often breaks for my sons birth parents and their deep loss. "Let everyone bless God and sing his praises, for he holds our lives in his hands. And he holds our feet to the path. Psalms 66:8-9" Nothing is coincidence. So don't get caught up in thinking you don't look the same or act the same or you don't know anyone else from child's birth country. Adoption becomes it's own culture and there is a vast network of support out there. You might think your adding one new culture to your family but really it's two. Do it, let God have his way in your heart and be blessed, so very very blessed.

My Big Buckaroo turned 4!!

Sammy is four and Sammy is big, physically, I mean. People always ask how old are you, and he tells them, then they look at me to confirm, and then there eyes get big when I say, yes he really is only four. Sam loves to dress-up. Cowboy is his favorite, but we also have church man or singer man, which involves brown pants (Khakis) a button down shirt and a tie. Don't even consider putting the wrong shoes with the wrong outfit he knows what look he's going for and you might as well get he suited up the proper way or he won't stop bothering you about it until you do. We also have game man and worker man. It's interesting every morning to see who he wants to be that day.

Sam is a persistent child, one day several weeks ago he got in trouble nagging me about watching his "show" Land Before Time, so much so, that I wouldn't let he watch it at all that day. He was traumatized for sure. Today he asked after breakfast if he could watch his show, I said, sure let me get your brothers on the school bus first. Well five minuets later I'm doing dishes, completely forgetting his "show", when he says, mom I'm not bugging you about my show, see I'm not bugging you at all. He's so funny.

Sam had a interesting kick this fall. He fell in love with the good Samaritan. I did a story at church and had the boys help me act out the story. Sam was "Pastor Sammy" or priest who didn't stop to help because he didn't want to get his church clothes dirty, Owen was "brother Owen" or the Levitt who couldn't stop because he didn't want to be late for church, and Abe was the kid from the wrong side of the tracks that stopped to help. After doing that story at church Sam was hooked. I had to retell the story at least 3 or 4 times a day. One day while cleaning Sam and Abe's room, Sam requested the story AGAIN, I final wised up and said here lets find it in your Bible and you can look at the pictures. That Bible became his constant companion for the next month. It was so sweet to see him sitting on the couch "reading" nearly word for word because he had heard it read so many times. The Lord's hand is upon him.
Here are a few photos of his party. We love you Sammy, it wouldn't be the same without you.

Nana got Sam this authentic chaps and vest. He wore the vest to church but we talked him out of the chaps.
This is his Sammy cake, yes it's a cake designed around the birthday boy when he is dressed like singer man. He loved it!

Here are some other random pics you might enjoy.

Daddy and Isaac on Thanksgiving.

Owen posing for the camera.

Abe or is that Obi One, playing with Isaac.

Isaac hamming it up for the camera.

Look at that face!!

That's all for now.

Well I've been thinking about doing this post for a long time... so here goes. Two summer ago, we started talking about redoing our kitchen, it was a small eat in kitchen with room for five if we squeezed the high chair at the end of the bar, and were in process to get another baby (Isaac) so we knew something had to change. So we began making plans to redo the kitchen, it needed it, the cabinets were starting to fall apart and we just didn't fit any more. We were planning to remove some walls open it up and make the whole house more use able. Well we are blessed with an amazing carpenter in our family, my father-in-law, so we got him to help on this project. He built the cabinets and so much more.

This is Paul or Pap, as he is called at our house.

So we began our journey to remodel the kitchen and Paul asked his cousin Margie to come take a look and give us her expert opinion, she is a wonderful space planner. Well Margie took one look at the house and began adding on the moment she drove up. Here is what she saw.

She said, oh what they need is a laundry room/mud room and a two car garage with bedrooms above the garage, they need a new roof anyway might as well do it all at the same time and have it all match up. Well we were planning on a new roof as well, but that was it. Ben and I were a bit overwhelmed. After they left we had a good start on a plan for the kitchen, but we were both rolling our eyes at the thought of such a major addition. But the more we thought about it the more it started to make sense. We knew we weren't done adopting so maybe few more bedrooms a couple more bathrooms and a laundry room on the main level started to make sense. But we still weren't convinced until I saw this vs. 3 times in one morning and it really sealed it in my mind when I read it in the Living Bible.

Isaiah 54: 2-3 "Enlarge your house; build on an addition. Spread out your home, and spare no expense! For you will soon be bursting at the seams. Your descendants will occupy other nations."

It never ceases to amaze me when a vs. from the Bible speaks so clearly to me, for surly the word of the Lord is alive and active. Anyway here we are almost two years later Isaac came home right as we finished the kitchen and a month later we started the addition. Here it is..

this is the front

This is the front of the old house minus the dormer.

This is the back.

A few weeks ago we finished the last major piece of the remodel, or I should say Paul finished it, we refinished the hard wood floors in the old part of the house. Paul put the last layer of polyurethane on the floors Sat. morning and on Sunday morning preparing for my Sunday school class I felt God give us the go ahead for the next adoption. I hadn't said anything yet to Ben, I'd been bugging him all summer about starting another adoption and he really wouldn't say much. Which is really unusual!!! I have always been the one in the past to say let's wait, or not yet. So as I'm getting ready for church, Ben says out of the blue, are you ready to start another one. I just smiled and said yes, it's time. So here we go again!! We have applied to America World again our previous agency we used for Sam and Isaac. We have applied to the Ethiopian program again and initially we asked for two children. This may change as we are working with our agency they would like us to be prepared to take just one child as it is highly unlikely that two would be available at the same time. We're still praying about it. But we're looking forward to filling up this new addition until we're bursting at the seams.

Blessings,

Leigha