One month

We have been waiting one month now for our little one to be referred to us. Our agency asks that parents only call once a month to check on the where they are on the list. Knowing that after waiting only one month we were still at the bottom of the list, I called anyway. The woman I spoke with was very nice. That's a good thing, because I am alway a little nervous when I call. She said they have had lots of infants coming into their care, but not so many 3-6 year olds. She said it could be 6 months+ before we hear anything.

So we wait.

To be honest, the waiting isn't too hard on me yet. We have so much going on that time seems to fly by. Which, in a way, is a good thing, but in a way it is makes me a little sad. I want to savor every minute I have with our three kids at home. They are growing up way too fast. Cole is going to his first youth group meeting at church tonight. Unbelievable.

Hurricane Ike Damage

This link will take you to lots of pictures of the damage done by Hurricane Ike in Texas. It looks like a war zone. I wish I was there to help our family and friends through this rough time.

One Semester of Spanish- Love Song

My son is learning so much in Spanish class. His teacher showed them this video today. So, now he can woo a girl in spanish.

Super William

Will's teacher made each student a paper cape with the Superman emblem and Super _______ (fill in blank with kids name). All the students then wrote things they liked about that child on his/her cape. I always love to read what other children think about my kids and the misspellings are so cute.

The one that got me was "He as a seen of Homer" It took me awhile, but I finally figured out what this one said.

He has a sense of humor....too cute.

Egypt

Here we are just a few days until Egypt! Very exciting.

My daughter who doesn't like the conservative dress required in Doha, asked if she could wear tank tops in Egypt. Her reasoning "Cleopatra lived there and she wore tank tops and the guys didn't wear shirts!" Hmmm...she has a point.

Brady Bunch

I got the first season of The Brady Bunch and we are having a blast watching. I loved the Bradys when I was a kid. My children are loving it too. It is a refreshing change after a little too much Hannah Montana. It is amazing how many of the episodes I remember. I have a feeling we will be getting season two, soon.

Samaritan's Purse helps Ike victims

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1534611823/bclid900701426/bctid1790967088

This link will take you directly to a link on the Samaritan's purse website. They are looking for volunteers and financial donations. Most of my family is in Southeast Texas. They are safe, but there is much work to be done to help neighbors and friends recover.

Been Busy

Got three turtles...one each!

Signed up for Cub Scouts...we have never, ever done Scouts. I think it is going to be great fun for Will, but I had to talk him into it.

Abbey started piano lessons. Cole continued piano lessons. I am in awe. I can't even play a kazoo.

Signed the boys up for Little League.

Went to Iftar dinner at the Ritz Carlton. It was beautifully decorated and the food was good.

Started Arabic class. I can now say "Welcome" , "What's this?" "door, window, pen, notebook, book, one, A, and B" in Arabic. I can write the first two arabic letters. Did you know you read and write, right to left in Arabic?

That's all for now!

Pattern for Cute Bag

The pattern for the cute bag I posted about a few days ago can be found by clicking here.

Happy Sewing~!

charity: water

The September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

Grab your credit card and check out this video from Charity: Water and then give to help people in Ethiopia get clean drinking water.

Lately we have been reading the One Year Bible for Kids every night after dinner. These past few days we have been in Matthew reading the parables. The one we read on Sept. 9 really struck me. I honestly think am getting more out of it than the kids. It was the one about the sheep and the goats (25:31-46) I have been in church all my life and I had never connected the parable of the sheep and the goats being separated into two groups, with the verses about the "least of these". But it was right there in red letters. The sheep fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, invited in the stranger, and clothed the naked. The goats did not. The sheep went on to eternal life. The goats did not.

What if God isn't blessing us for our own comfort and luxury, but has something else entirely in mind?

Easy Doro Wat

Doro Wat is a classic spicy Ethiopian chicken dish. It is often referred to as the national dish of Ethiopia.

Today is Ethiopian New Year's Day and in celebration I asked Mekedes to teach me how to make Doro Wat. Some of you may balk at her Doro Wat made easy recipe. But, she is Ethiopian through and through. She learned how to make Doro Wat growing up in Ethiopia and just like my mom taught me some short cuts, she uses some short cuts as well.

Mekedes' Doro Wat

1.Prepare the chicken:

Add

2-3 cups of water
2 lemons quartered
1 tsp salt
Chicken pieces (whatever kind you want to use.)

Add chicken to water, salt and lemons. Squeeze the lemon juice on the chicken. Let sit until sauce is ready. Then add chicken to sauce.

2. Boil 6 eggs. After they are done, peel and score the edges with a knife.

3. Make the Sauce:

4-5 large red onions
5 garlic cloves, grated
1 T. grated fresh ginger

Chop onions in a food processor into small pieces. Add onions, garlic and onion in a large pot or cooking pan (large enough to hold the finished product). Do not add oil or liquid. Cook on medium high until "brown is coming" Do not brown. When you see the onions beginning to turn it is time to stop. You may have to add a little oil during the cooking. Note: It is easy to burn the onions if you don't watch them closely. I did.

Add

1/4 cup oil or butter (there is a special spicy Ethiopian butter recipe floating around, but I just used canola oil.)

chicken stock cube

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp poultry seasoning

1 tsp black pepper

1tsp nutmeg

1 tsp berbere powder (I bought in Ethiopia..not sure where to buy in US)

Cook on medium heat for about 1/2 hour, adding a little water if it gets too dry.

Add (this is the interesting part! I had no idea she put spaghetti sauce in her doro wat.)

1/2 jar of store bought spaghetti sauce

Bring to a boil and put in chicken pieces. I used two packs of chicken breast, because that is what my kids like. You can use a whole chicken cut up, or chicken legs or thighs. Cover and turn down heat to medium or medium lo. Simmer about 1 hour.

Add the boiled eggs and stir together.

Serve with injera. Injera is the Ethiopian staple. It is a big, round, spongy pancake-like bread made with teff flour. It has a sour dough taste. Food is served on injera and pieces of injera are used to scoop up the wat.

We are eating our doro wat with rice. I will have to learn how to make injera another day.

Update on our Little Guy

Thanks to everyone who commented on our youngest son's first day of school. Just wanted to let you know that he is doing just fine. He likes school and his new teacher. His class has two pet turtles that he is especially fond of. He told me that all last year he would walk by the classroom with the turtles and look inside, and now he is in that class. Lucky boy! He is at that amazing age where reading and understanding really take off. It is shaping up to be a great school year!

Kiva Loan

I just made my first ever Kiva loan! Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

I loaned money to Francisco Roberti Guzmán Mendoza in Chinandega, Nicaragua

"Mr. Francisco Guzman devotes himself to the sale of general medicine; he has his own pharmacy which is located at his residence in the municipality of El Viejo, in the city of Chinandega. This gentleman has been characterized as being a great father because he has managed to provide and education for his three school age children."

I heard about Kiva a while ago, but just got around to making my first loan. I just went to the website and all the loans are fully funded at the moment, but keep checking and you can help someone keep their business afloat or start a new business to support their family. Once your loan is repaid you can reinvest.

The key to giving online is to always have your credit card handy when you sit down at the computer. (This is also the key to online shopping, so be careful!) Also make sure you know your paypal password! Couldn't be easier!

All People Quilt

I made this cute purse for a friend for her birthday! It was easy. The second picture shows the inside with the pockets. I got the pattern off of a great website called www.allpeoplequilt.com.

The website has lots of free patterns and not all are quilting projects. I am picking up my sewing machine today. It is in the repair shop. I am anxious to sew. I bought lots of quilt fabric in the US.

First Day of School

Today is our youngest child's first day of school. He was a little sad when I took this picture. I pray he has a great first day. Goodness gracious-I love this kid!

The Harris family in Doha

Church in Doha. Today it was announced that we are moving to three services and people would no longer be allowed to sit on the stairs or in the hallway due to safety issues. With three services we may be able to have adult bible study (Sunday school on Friday, of course). I am teaching 2-3 year olds again this year. I only teach once a month which is a good thing for me...they are a busy bunch of bees.

My friend in her new kitchen.

Cute family!

4 American Girls in Doha.

We are thrilled that our good friends have moved to Doha. We met the Harris family while living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 2002. We got to be great friends with them. Later, both of our families ended up in The Woodlands, Texas and NOW they are living in Doha. It is a huge blessing to me to have them so close. They are living in a different compound across town, but we get to see them lots. We had lunch with them after church today.

It was good to be in the house of the Lord this morning. It was crowded and HOT, but it was good. One of our lay pastors taught a great message.....a "Don't waste your life" kind of message. Afterwards, I met a new family that just moved here from Nigeria. The wife was excited to hear about my trip to Ethiopia. I look forward to talking to her more about Nigeria. I could be wrong, but I feel like God might be preparing our hearts for Nigeria one day.

This morning I got an email from a volunteer planning to go to Ethiopia in January for the Ethiopian Christmas time to organize Christmas for the kids at the orphanage. I had inquired about going and it looks like I might. Pray for God's will as we work out the details.

We remember moments!

Our oldest child is in middle school this year. He is growing up so fast. He is playing clarinet in the band this year. He is also taking pre-algebra and Spanish B, so his classes are pretty tough. But, he loves school. He always has.

He has some really good friends at school and spends a lot of time playing with them after school. Pretty soon he will start cross country practice after school. I think they run 4 days a week. He has grown 2 sizes this summer. He's been talking more seriously about his faith lately. It is becoming more real and personal to him. What can I do? He is growing up.

But, last night was one of those fun moments with him that I will always remember (especially since I am writing it down). It was late, past his bedtime and he came in my room with his Ipod. Instead of sending him back to his room which is what I normally do when I finally get them all in bed, I let him climb up beside me. He wanted me to listen to some new Audio Adrenaline song he had downloaded. So we looked up the lyrics on my laptop and with one ear phone is his ear and one in mine we sang our hearts out!

It was one of those parenting moments for me. Reminds me of one of my mom's favorite quotes.

"We don't remember days, we remember moments"

Here's to making the most of the moments we have with our kids. (Excuse me now, while I go get a tissue....)

We are going to Egypt!

My two smartest blog friends guessed that we are going to EGYPT for Eid. I am going to have to bring them back a cartouche or some papyrus or something cool like that for playing along with me.

I really don't know much about Egypt, but am looking forward to learning lots on the trip and I'm doing a bit of reading to get ready. Our good friends, the Crouch family is going, too. They have 4 kids, so it ought to be big fun for the kids. If they get tired of ruins, they can play hide and seek or something.

On the home front, our youngest child is having a hard time staying in his bed at night. Over the summer he got used to sleeping with Mamma and now he is not ready to give that up. Mind you, he is 7 years old, but he is still my baby. He has been in here 3 times already telling me he can't get to sleep. The last time he said he had figured out why he can't get comfortable. His pillow was backwards. He keeps me smilin',that's for sure! (Opps, he's back again for the 4th time. He just doesn't know why he can't go to sleep.)

Another development around our home is the presence of a little friend from the compound. All the K-2nd graders were delayed in going back to school for 2 weeks, which has made for some bored kiddos. This one little guy comes over quite often to play with our youngest son. If our son isn't here, he is just as happy to hang around me or just sit in our living room and watch tv. He is 6 years old. We requested a 3-6 year old on our adoption paperwork. I find myself thinking a 6 year old would be just great. This little guy is so precious and fun to be with. I hope his mom doesn't read this or she might think I am going to snatch her child. Actually, I had found myself hoping our new addition would be on the younger end of our requested age range, so it has been so good for me to experience 6 again.

Hint #2

Ok...join the fun and guess where we are going at the end of this month.

1. It is located in Africa.
2. It is known for its deserts.

Chick Fil A Chicken

Those of you who know us well know that my kids luuuuuv Chik Fil A. That is one of the things we gorge on while in the US. The other night I was lying in bed trying to figure out what Chik Fil A puts in their chicken to make it so yummy. Well, you will never guess what one of the secret ingredients is. POWDERED SUGAR! According to a recipe I found at www.recipezaar.com those delicious chicken nuggets have powdered sugar in them.

I made them tonight and everybody loved them except my Chik Fil A purist. He was unable to eat them. Thanks OK...more for me.

This is the recipe I used...

• Combine 1 cup milk and 1 egg
• In a seperate bowl combine 1 cup flour, 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 2 teaspoons salt. ( I added a little paprika for the fun of it!
• Dip each piece of chicken in milk mixture and roll in flour until completedly covered.
• Fry in hot oil.

It was worth every, greasy, fried calorie!