Flexiblity is the key

Flexibility is the Key...

This is one thing I learned over this past weekend at our Assessment Center with CMF.

Over this past month I have been praying and thinking so much about the upcoming trip to Ethiopia. I was scared and excited about the trip. I felt like a great opportunity for me to go and felt like God wanted me to go. Well...sometimes Gods plans are just a little different than what we imagined...

The awesome news is we are officially affiliated with CMF!!!! So that means we are OFFICIALLY working our way to move to Ethiopia!!!! After the intense weekend of the Assessment Center we were given a personal development plan. Included in this are a few books to read, a plan for Adam to get his cholesterol down a bit (we have to be healthy missionaries!), and some educational things and training that we will complete before moving. One thing we have to do before we start raising support is take this course called Perspectives. If you click on the name it will take you to their website and you can read more about it. It will teach us more about missions and Gods call to missions. It is a 15 week course...That puts us way into November...Our trip is scheduled for October...This class is required of us...That means that I will not be able to go to Ethiopia in October. BUMMER! To be the best missionary I can be I have to get as much out of this class that I can. I have to focus on this...Missing 2 weeks to go to Ethiopia I feel is not in my best interest.

I am so excited for this class and this journey! I am excited to be living Gods plan. and I have learned so well over this past 2 years that my plan usually isnt exactly His plan! We are taking the ride and following His course. I am planning on a mid to late spring trip to Ethiopia. So yes I am still going and taking Maggie, just not as soon as I had imagined. So we are still fundraising, selling shirts, collecting donations and diapers, etc. We just have a longer time to do it in now! (click on our button on the sidebar to go to our store)

We are super excited about this course that we are taking. We finished the Assessment Center and they gave us the personal development plan and the class was on it...and well the class started the day after we were done with this intense weekend. (last night) So once again, flexibility is the key. We shuffled and found a super babysitter last night. Over the weekend the kids had 9 different people watching them and we didnt want to have to use any of them. My aunt stepped up and watched them for us and they all had a blast. If you know us, then you know finding a babysitter can be a challenging job. But God worked it all out :) A lady at CMF is also going to be babysitting for us during these 15 weeks. and they paid for the class for us. CMF is super awesome and the people are super awesome and will do about anything for you. We LOVE them and highly recommend them to anyone interested in the missions field.


Please pray for us as we are moving our way to all of the fun stuff in His plan for us. We are excited about this class and excited about support raising (and a little scared too!).

This is going to be an awesome journey and we are excited to work our way through it and share it as we go along.

Thanks so much for reading!

Heading to Ethiopia - lots of fundraisers!!!

So back a few weeks ago we were called up by CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship) and asked if we would like to go on a vision trip with them to Ethiopia this October for 13 days. At first I was like "oh wow yes I would be interested and I could take Maggie along with me" then the doubt starting setting in...

• wow I will be gone for almost 2 weeks! there is no way I can be away that long...
• there is no way I could wean Emery that soon (I always nurse my babies until they are two)-I would be terrible if I did that!
• leaving Adam that long with the kids would be really interesting, what would the house look like?, how would he handle trying to work, etc..
• I am just not ready to do this...
• I can't raise almost $4000 for Maggie and I to go on this trip...there is no way!
• What if Maggie or I get sick when we are there?
• What if it's just too much for me to handle without Adam?
  
• the list could go on and on...

But I am reminded...I can do all things through Christ who give me strength...Really, me, I can! I still have moments throughout everyday where I am thinking there is no way I can do this. But I pray or just think about it and really I can do this. This will be great! There have been a few things that seem to say "hey you are supposed to go on the trip" -like maggie being on fall break during that time. We homeschool but use a public virtual school so we have to stay with their schedule and I was worried about trying to squeeze in two weeks worth of school work before we leave...but today I found out we will be good to go! There have been other little things that pop up or I think of from time to time that give me a peace about going.

When we first heard of the trip CMF really wanted both Adam and I to go. Well, with the little kiddos and with him not having much vacation time left this year there was no way he could go. I really wanted to go back before moving there and I really wanted Maggie to experience it before we moved there. We felt like this was a great opportunity for us to go. We will be hearing and experiencing first hand what the missionaries living in Addis working with the Urban Poor team are doing. It will be great getting to experience Addis in a whole new way. Visiting as an adoptive parent just isn't the same as going on a mission trip there. My experience traveling there before was even more different because I was 10 weeks pregnant with Emery! I am excited to love on the people and stand in the place where our hearts are. We will spend the majority of our days there with the Urban Poor team, but also will be making a trip to Shashamane to visit our sponsored son, Misganow, who we sponsor through project 61. We are going to spend some time in an orphanage or two, spend some time in Korah (Kore), meet some missionary friends who work with other organizations (like No Ordinary Love Ministries), and I know that other things will pop up and I am anxious to see what God has in store for this!

I am collecting cloth diapers to take with me (if you know of a particular orphanage in need of them let me know). If there's any out there who would like to donate diapers let me know. I want to take as much as possible. I have been so blessed with my cloth diaper project and have already sent over 1000 lbs of cloth diapers to Ethiopia. I think that is pretty amazing!!! What started as a "little" project has become so HUGE! and it will continue as we move to Addis. We are going to be the contact in Ethiopia and a few other mommy's are taking on collecting donations here in the states!!! I am so super excited for this and it is totally a God thing...More on that at a later time...

Besides cloth diaper we are taking donations for things to take to this orphanage ...

• childrens clothing for ages 4-14
• childrens shoes for ages 4-14
• formula

I can't believe how soon we will be in Ethiopia visiting! We have about 9 weeks to raise these funds to go. We are counting on our t-shirts, bumper stickers, Ethiopian goods, flower clips, and donations to fully fund this trip. I know that God can make this happen! so this is where YOU come in...you can visit our store here... http://ourtriptoethiopia.storenvy.com/ and check out our awesome things we are selling (all proceeds go to fund our trip)! There is also a button over on the right of this page that you can click on. There is also a paypal donate button or you can donate through our store if you feel led.

On a slightly different note we will be attending our 3 day Assessment Center this weekend and a 1 day support raising orientation with our sending agency CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship). We are super excited to "officially" get things up and running to becoming full time missionaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! Please pray for us this weekend as we want clear minds so we can focus fully on the time there. We can't wait to figure out all of the details as far as support raising and our projected time that we will move. We will keep everyone posted as we know more.