The Compass or the Clock?

“What comes first, the compass or the clock?
Before one can truly manage time (the clock),
it is important to know where you are going,
what your priorities and goals are,
in which direction you are headed (the compass).
Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going.
Rather than always focusing on what’s urgent,
learn to focus on what is really important.”
–Author unknown

flickr: simpologist

Everything else..

Well I have decided to start a new addition to my blog..
its basically called everything else.
Yes, as hard as it is to believe, there are other things that take place in my head and in my daily life other than The Violet Ribbon (which I will, of course, continue with passionately!)

So other than adoption and waiting and sweet & fabulous Ribbons.. what else do I do?
Well, you know.. the normal dinner-thing and work-thing but hopefully I can sound somewhat interesting! ;)

So let's start with food.. always a favorite subject!

A new journey of mine has been becoming a vegetarian several months ago.
It sounds kind of dramatic but I saw the documentary, The Cove, this past spring and it changed me forever!

I had previously seen Food, Inc. and several others and though they were educational and horrifying in their own way, for some reason I was not truly affected until I saw The Cove.
 

(photo courtesy of flickr: bee happy123)

It was different to see these wild, beautiful creatures versus the typical farm animals we all view as "food". There is just a disconnect when it comes to our food and especially where it comes from.. I think in general we see cows and chickens and pigs as our dinner and that's it, pure and simple.
But I think that we have been given stewardship over all animals, it is our job to take care of them.. and to act as if we "own" them and have a right to treat them with such complete disrespect and ugliness is just wrong.

I haven't gone into Vegan-territory because I am eating eggs, cheese, a bit of dairy and the occasional sustainable fish (You must check out Paul Greenberg's book, Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food)
 

I'm not condemning anyone that eats meat. My husband, Stuart, still eats it (although less often now) but we have chosen to only purchase meat from local, humane farms that treat their animals with kindness, dignity and respect and who use butchers with the same morals and values.
In a happy surprise, there is apparently a nice-sized movement of people with a similar mindset and thus there are more options for this way of eating than you would imagine! Kind of exciting actually :) Honestly, this has made eating more tasty, interesting, flavorful, colorful, fun, and healthy!

So I think you should all watch The Cove.. it is very educational, not gory and traumatic.

And I promise to share many veggie-loving, yummy recipes with you!

So this is my start to a switch from the adoption-only postings.. hopefully I can keep it interesting enough for you!!  ;)

The road not taken..

I have always loved this line from Robert Frost's poem:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

Last week was unexpectedly one of the most emotional weeks of my life.. it is most likely a longer story that you will not have time to read~ so I'll try to be as brief as possible (although for me, that in itself is impossible!)

So last Tuesday, I did something that I have only done twice before.. I looked at the "Waiting Children" list for our adoption agency. I never do it, quite frankly, because it is heart-breaking and convicting all at once. To see so many children and at just one agency, 24 pages of 9-12 kids each.. the emotional toll of viewing it is great and not something to be taken lightly, especially when you are already emotionally charged as I am. 

People tell stories of looking on those Waiting Children lists when they had never planned to adopt a special needs child but then they saw that one face that for some reason spoke to their heart and they just knew, this is my child. 

I never imagined that would happen to me and yet it has already happened twice before on those other 2 occasions that I looked at the list.. 

First there was a little boy, 8 or 9 years old from somewhere in eastern Europe. He was so sweet and his little face broke my heart. He had facial deformities from whatever selfish craziness his birth mother had chosen to partake in while she was pregnant. His little nose was pushed up way too much and his eyelids were tiny slits like keyholes, which also made him legally blind. His predicament moved me even more because he was at that time living in a orphanage for younger children but at his next birthday, he would age out of that orphanage and need to be moved to the one for older children and teens. His photo had almost a call for help with it, saying that he was very happy and comfortable at his present "home" but that they believed that due to his physical challenges, he would experience a lot of bullying and torment at the new orphanage that they didn't know if his little heart could handle. I immediately (well after I bawled my eyes out..) called Stuart and we prayed about it.. 

Was this our child? 

I don't know.. Stu and I have no experience with special needs children or adults. I don't know...

We are pretty much middle class, ordinary people. We have no huge income or trust funds. He is nearly 40 years old, beginning a new career as an Electrician Apprentice and I am an Aesthetician/Skin Care Specialist at a day spa. We have a mortgage, a car payment, normal bills like normal people.. We have dreams for bigger things, better things, vacations, toys, experiences.. but at the same time, we have always had hearts for where we are called. We may not be the most church-going Christians but the Lord we trust and follow is real.. and His dreams for our lives are bigger and more amazing than the life we dream for ourselves.. 

We try to live with the philosophy of: I will follow You, wherever You lead me.

If we truly believe as we say that we do.. that everything in this life is a miracle and an opportunity to make a difference in this world, then how on earth could we simply see this need and feel the pull in our hearts, and yet walk away..

I mean, what are you supposed to do when you see a need that needs to be met?? 

If God brought this person into your world and into your heart, there must be a reason. 

So we prayed and talked and decided to call about him.. 

Was he our child? 

We were about to find out.. it turns out that he was not because someone had already chosen him, his file had been removed because a family was in the process of coming for him. We were so happy for that sweet boy!

But God was working on our hearts for a reason, I'm not sure what.. but for some reason that little boy touched, even softened our hearts...

Then #2.. (I told you I can't tell a short story!!) 

Now the little boy was like 2 1/2 yrs ago.. this next one was maybe one year ago? She was around 9 months old, in China and had among other things, Hydrocephaly, which basically means water on the brain. She was also noted as having "failure to thrive".. in an orphanage setting, that can mean a lot of things, and can be anything from super-minor to super-severe. You just never know.. But her sweet little face was speaking to my heart.. 

Was this my child?? 

Meanwhile, in this whole process, we were working on our adoption by devoting nearly every non-working hour to our homestudy and dossier paperwork.. so this was just one more addition to the heart-wrenching, overwhelming ordeal.. 

I won't go into the details again but clearly, she was not our child.. and yet she had certainly moved my heart.

So it had been nearly a year since I perused the List.. why I chose to do it again last Tuesday morning before work, I have no idea. But I did it and on that 23rd page, I saw that face. 

It sounds ridiculous and like I'm just a bleeding heart or something but when you feel something, you feel it. 

And its not pity or sadness or anything like that. There is a very real (what I imagine to be parental..) feeling that cannot be ignored. Maybe its not the same maternal feeling I will feel once I do have "my" child and when they are really and truly mine and not a just a photo on a computer screen. 

But the feeling is real.. to protect them from any more heart ache and pain, to love them and never let them feel abandoned again, to heal the hurt, to be what they need, to love them unconditionally and to give them what every child deserves.. a family. 

Its parental, paternal, maternal, human.. it is the very reason you choose to adopt.

So I saw his face, "Henry".. and he broke my heart. 

The only thing "wrong" with him?.. his age. He is simply too old, no one wants him. So I called and was told that he is 15 and will be 16 in August, at which point he will age out of the adoptable range and will, therefore, never have a family. 

How can this be? 

Now that I've thought about it, I'm sure that it happens all of the time in this country and across the world. Adoption is more common now but not nearly as common as is needed.. there are children that will turn 18, leave their orphanage or group home and not have a connection in the world. Wow.. To not have one person that will love you, that you can run to, that you know will be there no matter what you have said or done.. to not have one person that cares about you in the whole world.. 

That is tragedy in its purest form. How can this even be?.......

So Stu and I prayed and consulted and made decisions and called our social worker and the decision was made by that evening to see what our next step would be.. 

He is in Hong Kong.. how would this affect our Violet in Ethiopia??

Wednesday we waited.. it was all speculation at that point.. could we do both, would it even be allowed? How would we do this financially? And this is a teenage, nearly grown man, who doesn't speak English... So many unknowns.. But that face and my heart.. there was something Real there. God was moving us..

Wednesday evening over a Guiness at the local Irish Pub (how else do you make life decisions, right? lol) we decided this would be our life. 

Violet would have a big brother :) It would be perfect. Stu was more excited about having a son than I even expected him to be.. It was really sweet.

Thursday morning, we were thrown a major fork in the fork.. 

The Hong Kong program will not allow you to pursue two countries at once, period. No "holds" on our dossier or anything like that. We will have to pull out of Ethiopia entirely. 

So what does this mean for our baby girl.. for Violet? 

Our social worker said that at the point later on, when we are "allowed" to redo all of our paperwork and resubmit our new dossier to ET, the wait then will be around 3 years.. 

Whoa..

I was at work in the breakroom, coworkers all around me, but I couldn't help myself, I bawled my eyes out. 

Oh my God... What will it be like to have her nursery empty for another 4 years?? My heart literally split into a million pieces... I hurt physically. Emotions surging on all levels.. 

But then the news got a lot harder. Our social worker then explains that the risk that we will be taking will be huge. Not only will be be dropping out of Ethiopia but the chances of our getting "Henry" are so slim, maybe 5%. Even the Hong Kong director thought it was an incredibly risky move on our part. 

You see, the time period it takes to get all of the different documents approved by all of the different government agencies in both countries is huge. Once HK has your dossier in country, it will take approx 7-10 months for everything to be approved and for you to then travel to pick up your child. We do not have our dossier in country because our dossier is in Ethiopia and of course every country's dossier is different, you can't just transfer from one to the other.. plus much of our dossier paperwork is too old to resubmit because it is over 6 months old. All of those pieces will have to be redone, which even in super-fast time and with Stu working insane hours right now (81 hours this past week! You read that right.. 81) it would take us prob 2 weeks to get all of our paperwork together. At that point, we would have 4 1/2 months for paperwork to do what it will take a minimum of 7 months to do.

On a side note, we would also lose a pretty large amount of our country fee to Ethiopia due to it being non-refundable and all. But God provided the money up until now and He will provide later, if needed.

However, our social worker said that there is a very real possibility that we could get to August and have nothing... no "Henry", no Violet.. nothing. 

That would be a very dark and lonely place to arrive indeed..

Gosh..

Decisions are not always easy.. 

Life is not easy.. 

Doing the right thing is not easy..

I guess I always thought that if God was in the process, it would be easy. That His grace would cushion it somehow.. I don't know how it all works. Maybe its not as cut and dry as all of that. Life rarely fits into the neat little package that we'd like it to..

On that same day, we also received the entire case study for "Henry". It made the decision just weird because we were now being faced with discussions and decisions we were never prepared to have.. Discussions about how "Henry" was actually in the HK foster system until a few years ago, about his behavioral problems that stemmed from that. How that would affect our lives here? Discussions about why a single father and his new girlfriend would choose to sever his parental rights of his 6 year old child.. a child who was undoubtedly still suffering from the grief and trauma of his mother's death. Why no one else in his mother's family or father's family had chosen to take him? Why no one had fought for him?  

The imagined life that I had seen so clearly just hours before was becoming more cloudy and uncertain and I was feeling very guilty about it... 

Would we also abandon him? 

I don't know, I don't know... I don't know. 

To know of the needs of a group and to see photos at random is easy to ignore.. But to know a name and a face and a story.. 

Henry is real. 

To know that he wears glasses, which make him appear inquisitive, but that he often forgets to take off at night. His house parent has to wake him up and remind him to take them off.. I mean, those are intimate details of someone's life. I shouldn't know those things, you shouldn't either! 

Except we do... and we were meant to know them, so that we would care and have a connection to a need that we either never thought about or that we never wanted to think about.. 

but Henry is real and his needs are real.

Life isn't always the warm, fuzzy happy place we Americans like to pretend it is.. 

It is also a place where children go to bed at night, wondering why their dad didn't love them enough to keep them and why no one else wants them either..

That is tragic. That is heart-wrenching. 

Thursday night, after my evening happy hour visit with my sweet friend, Kim.. and thus with a few margaritas in my system, I bawled hysterically for Henry, mourning the losses that he has experienced and mourning our lack of courage and strength.. 

We tearfully came to the conclusion that we are going to continue on the road we were on.. our dossier will stay in Ethiopia because we know that our baby Violet will be there and she is already so much a part of this family that we cannot risk losing her and the connection to that part of the world I know that God intends for us to be a part of...

What of Henry then?...

I don't know, I don't know... 

I had romanticized his story in my head, this boy at an orphanage who always saw his friends being adopted but he was always left behind.. until that one day when we came and chose him and he got the family he always dreamed about and it was beautiful and amazing and we all lived happily ever after.. 

Yes, I am working on my expectations and perceptions (especially for our adoption) because clearly disappointment is in my future if I plan to put a fairy-tale spin on life..  and its not fair for anyone for me to do that. 

It would certainly be nice and easy if everything worked out and fit cleanly into a lovely little package.. but that is not life.

I also envisioned being something of a "savior" for Henry and that was unfair as well. He needs parents and without a doubt, the Savior that he needs is not me. 

My prayer for that young man is for God to bring the right people into his life that will love him and lead him and help him to become the person that God intends for him to be. 

I know that the reason that I know his name, face, and story are so that I could share it with you... 

God has big and amazing things in store for Henry, the life he has lived will only make his life more impactful to those around him. How can we help others in their suffering if we, ourselves, have not suffered? I pray that the pain that Henry has experienced will be used for good in his life and for others, that God will heal his wounds and give him strength and courage and Faith that will move mountains.. that today as he sleeps at this very moment in his bed at midnight in Hong Kong (with his glasses still on, no doubt! :) I pray that the Lord will enter his heart with overflowing love from the Father that Henry always wanted but until now, never knew he had.. and I pray that his dreams will filled with angels and happiness and encouragement to lift him up throughout the day. 

I pray that tomorrow, in just a few short hours, that God will bring a strong and Faithful person into his life that will mentor and befriend Henry and that this day will be a turning point in his young life. 

I pray that he will know that he is not alone nor forgotten.. 

He will most likely never know that he has forever changed the lives of two people on the other side of the world.. but he will know the difference in the prayers and hope and love that Stuart and I will have for him for the rest of our lives.

I know that this is probably the longest blog post ever.. and it was stocked full of personal information and details that most people would not share but I hope that if you've taken the time to read this far, that your heart has been touched and you will join me in praying for Henry and all of the others around the world like him.. 

It is a sad a lonely world but the joy and happiness and hope that we know through Him can and must change the world.. but we all play a part. 

A life unimagined..

I have a request..
Please keep our family in your prayers for peace and clarity right now.

It is too early to speak details.. but something exciting, new, and unexpected has presented itself into our lives as of yesterday morning..
A fork in the road.
Stu and I are trusting and believing God to show us the way..  Oh He is definitely funny sometimes :) His ways are mysterious and a bit wacky.. but I believe that the life He has imagined for us is even bigger and better than the one we have dreamed for ourselves.

And He hears our prayers.. To quote myself from my post 3 days ago...
"Use my life, God.. whatever that means to You."

God is in the wait...

Its been awhile since I posted an update.. This morning I was lurking on our adoption agency's discussion board and decided to actually post a reply to someone's thread.. The person was asking other forum members: Should we give up on Ethiopia/switch countries before we send in our dossier aka boatload of paperwork and giant check?
Presently, Ethiopia is undergoing a ton of changes that have increased the wait for adoptive families to an additional year, maybe more. It is a big deal for everyone in the process, for the families like us who have already waited years and also for the children in orphanages who wait still... It stinks across the board but it is supposed to be helping the program there to stop corruption in the system. That is obviously important stuff, no one wants to adopt a child that already had a family that wanted them. That would pretty much be the worst thing ever.  But the wait is still heart-wrenching beyond words. Other people that replied to the post, previous to my reply were stating that we all needed to think about why we are adopting.. is it to have a child or to give parents to a child.. there are a lot of lovely bullcrap sentiments and judgements that every group of people make.. it is ridiculous. The adoption world is a beautiful and life-changing place that I am blessed beyond measure to be part of. But just as anything else, it is weird and it can be awful and there are always people wanting to make other people feel less.
Can I just for a moment get on a non-PC soapbox and say that if you are anywhere in the process of adopting internationally, you have already given so much of your heart and soul and time and finances to this purpose that if anyone inside or outside of the adoption world dares to judge your heart, they can absolutely stick it.
So there it is.. and here it is ;) Enjoy! (hopefully!) 


Re: Should we give up?

Hi, everyone~
Its been awhile since I chimed in but I felt the need to on this one..
I totally understand the proper adoption language and verbage that everyone has mentioned.. and that we are all trying to make a difference in the world as we build our families through international adoption.
However, we all want a child, regardless of the politically correct or incorrect reason we admit to.. You adopt internationally to also impact a life but let's not kid ourselves, no one is ever adding a child to their life, biologically or through adoption, for completely altruistic reasons.. It is human nature to have a family, God's design on our hearts to care for babies and want a family.. I don't think it is anything selfish or that we should be embarrassed or ashamed by. It just is..
But international adoption is something you either feel led to or you don't, it is a calling.. Otherwise, there are much quicker routes in the US that we could have all chosen. Immediate gratification would be awesome in almost every aspect of life, seriously it would But its not always enough.. Without getting all Hallmark greeting card on you guys, honestly sometimes the journey is better than the moment..

Story- I have a client that is in the process of her 2nd domestic adoption in the past 2.5 years. She mentioned last week (a bit callously, I suppose..) that it has all been so easy for she and her hubby, that both babies have "literally seemed to drop in our laps!" I wanted to simultaneously punch her and kill myself! LOL. I don't really mean that... much
Anywho, at the time, I thought to myself, God-what the crap? What exactly was the purpose of my hearing that on that day of all days (PS it was the day of the state department phone call when they mentioned that our wait would increase another full year.. oh yeah, it was a good day).. But to hear that and then hear her story about her 2nd adoption and how easy its been? What the crap.. really, God? No, God.. really???
Not that I want 2 babies, and not that I want her babies obviously but its just weird sometimes this whole adoption thing. Its like having your heart and stomach in a vice and you never know whether its going to be squeezed or relaxed. But back to the story-
So I tried to find the purpose in my learning of her lovely experience (on that day of all days) because I fully believe that God is in each moment and the fact that I was so weirded out and ticked off meant that He was definitely trying to teach me something
Oh the life lessons we have all learned in this process, right? Seriously I know you guys know what I'm talking about.. major character building going on in this forum!!!

I had prayed a prayer when we finally chose Ethiopia (or rather ET chose us because had it been entirely up to us, we would have adopted from China.. but God had other plans for our family..) So my prayer was that God would use our lives, whatever that meant for Him. Use our lives, God, because we only get to do this once and I want my life to matter. To really and truly make a difference, whatever that means to Him...
Clearly, that is a BIG freaking deal, that whole prayer, because God has some wacky plans sometimes that are very uncomfortable to our Western, spoiled flesh.. Small summary: God's plan will usually not ever be the easy button.. everrrrr! lol.

So I know that domestic adoption was right for that client's family. Her children were here and her adoption journey was meant to be different than mine.
Domestic adoption absolutely was not for us, for the same reason that we cannot switch countries- quite simply because our baby is going to be born in Ethiopia. We have to go get her! That's it. I know this like I know the sky is blue.
True, there may be quicker, easier avenues to build a family but when you know, you know.

My advice to KAAnderson is to follow the doors that open and think with your heart.. My husband and I chose to not pursue China due to the long wait, then we switched from South Korea due to the upcoming wait that the adoption world was predicting.. At that time, Ethiopia had one of the faster programs, and at that time, we said to ourselves, ummm can you say perfect?! Because we clearly do not like to wait..
And now what do you know? Here we are freaking waiting.. Yep.

Speaking for my husband and I, we never would have chosen Ethiopia because our hearts were set on Asia for too many years. But God used our impatience for His and our benefit because He moved us from China to South Korea to Ethiopia in less than a year, from the baby I dreamed of since I was 15 years old to the baby I was always meant to have but never imagined her face.. and still I wait to see it for that first time..
We were always meant to be in ET and by the same token, we were always meant to wait.. God was in the journey to here and He has known all along that we would wait. The thing that we avoided like the plague is exactly what we are stuck in right now and as annoyed and self-pitied as that can be, it is exactly where we are meant to be, where God needs us to be ("use my life, God!".. remember that? oh yes..) and this is exactly where our future family needs us to be.
Major major character building going on here!! lol. For all of us.. Amen?

Don't give up, girl! Don't give up.. God is in the wait! I promise you that.. you are going to get YOUR BABY whether you move countries or not, that little soul that is meant to be in your family will be there, whatever path you choose to get to him or her.. But choose the path your heart leads you to, not your head.. God rules your heart, a lot of the stuff rolling around in your head right now is just looking out for the flesh, not for the spirit..
Stay strong, everyone! We can do it!!!
PS Sorry for the absolutely longest reply post in the history of reply posts

Love to you all,
Summer

DTE: 10/15/2010

An absolutely incredible photo journey of Ethiopia!

juliemikos.com/ethiopia2/


This is well worth your time, I promise! Julie Mikos is a photographer/friend of one of my clients.. Julie accompanied another friend and her husband as they traveled to Ethiopia to pick up their children. They also took the time to journey into typically unseen areas of the country. You will be energized, moved, and blessed by this video..

PS Sorry I couldn't find a way of posting the actual video.. only the link.
juliemikos.com/ethiopia2/

Wow I needed to read this today...

"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3


I am missing our baby tremendously this morning but knowing that this verse is Truth gives me immense comfort and peace...
waiting for our day...

The journey so far..

This project has already been more amazing and heart-warming than we could have even imagined.. it has been a blessing to us as we wait and wait and wait..
wondering when our day will come.
We feel that each and every photo brings us just a little closer to our Violet.. and that is such an incredible gift and encouragement to us as we wait.. and wait..
still.


Right now, our adoption agency is trying to keep all of their adopting families as informed as possible. They held conference calls with us and the Ethiopian Director for our agency several weeks ago.. and this week more calls are scheduled. I'm planning to call in for today's conference call at noon.
The present situation in Ethiopia is a little dire for adopting families. There has been a big slowing down in the past few months, basically since we mailed our dossier :(

Apparently several agencies, orphanages, and social workers have not been practicing in the best interest of the children. Agencies were promising birth families gold and other outrageous lies, children were/are being mistreated and abused at orphanages.. and who knows what else.
So they have slowed down the process to protect the children, understandably.
We have been told that our agency was not one of the unethical agencies but regardless, all adoptions are being slowed down in order for their government to have time for extensive, individual investigations of each child that has been matched, before they are legally adopted.
As our agency put it, it is important for our child and for our own peace of mind to know that our child was, indeed, in need of a family and adopted morally and ethically.
This, of course, is what any adoptive parent wants.. the extended wait, however, not so much :(
but it is what it is..

Another change is once we receive our referral and we wait for our "travel call".. what was until recently a standard 1 & 1/2 to 2 week heads-up will now be a 24-48 hour heads-up.
In other words, we won't be able to tell our jobs until the day before we're leaving for 10 days to Africa and our plane tickets are going to be a small fortune. Emergency airfare to the other side of the world?
Hmm.. what's another 2 or 3000 bucks when you're already up to 30 Grand? Just another hurdle, eh?


There has also been an immense slow-down in the number of "referrals" or matching of infants with families.. We had believed that this was our year, maybe a spring referral and home before Christmas?! But... we're learning most likely not.

If our agency discussion board is any indication of our future, we are in for a long year, most likely a referral late this year and our Violet home next year..
That is not at all as we expected but God knows and He's in control.

And truly this whole journey has not unfolded as we had planned. So why should it be different now, I guess?
This process has been an emotional, harrowing experience but the growth in ourselves, in our relationship, and in our Faith has been incredible. The life that God has planned for us is so much better than the one we have imagined for ourselves. So we just continue to believe and trust that our family will be complete when and how He needs it to be..
Boy, on some days though... that is really, really hard.. 

Today I'm full of hope and belief that it will happen and it will be amazing! :)
Tomorrow may be a minor, temporary pity party but that's ok too.. its all part of the journey!

Adoption most certainly is Not for the faint of heart!

As we continue to wait, save, trust, hope, and believe, The Violet Ribbon project becomes more and more important to us...
It is our ultrasound, our doctor's visits, our kicks, our baby bump.. it is our connection to her.



So on this glorious day in January, in this new year, I thought it was the perfect time to list the places The Violet Ribbon has seen in just 3 months!! Wow.. hard to believe it was only October that we began this project..
And we cannot wait to see the adventures, sights, and gorgeous faces The Ribbon is yet to see!!
Thanks to everyone who has participated!!  Love you all!!
Please keep those photos coming!!

With love and gratitude,
Summer & Stuart


Tennessee..
Iowa..
Vermont..
Oklahoma..
Arkansas..
California..
Florida..
New Mexico..
Arizona..
Texas..
New York..
Hong Kong..
Thailand..
Mexico..

** ack! can't find my stupid cell phone and the conference call starts in 5 minutes! :-/   guess i'll try to do the one tomorrow...

The Violet Ribbon Project/Experiment/Gift

This is our adoption project as we wait and wish for our sweet baby, Violet, to come home to us from Ethiopia..

So what is this and why?..

Truly we are continually amazed and honored by the number of people who genuinely care for our baby already! Asking about our process, encouraging us, supporting us, praying for us, buying coffee from our JustLoveCoffee online store, and just all around loving this baby that is yet to join our family.. 

Our hearts continue to be moved and touched beyond words.

And so this project..

I wanted to do something for our baby right now..  I would like to have something to show for this time of waiting and wishing other than frustration, lessons of patience, and acne! haha.

Thus, as a 'while we wait' project/social experiment/wonderful gift for our sweet baby, we are collecting photos of us, of you, and of anyone and everyone else who may have a place in their heart for our little Violet as she sits in an orphanage on the other side of the world.. 

We believe it will have a huge impact on her someday to see how many people were thinking and praying for her.. and who were connected to her with The Violet Ribbon. 

So here's the deal...

Please email a photo of you holding out a violet ribbon from one outstretched hand to the other. You don't have to be anywhere particularly interesting or jazzy, but that would be cool too :) Please also let us know the city and state the photo was taken so we can keep track of the travels of The Violet Ribbon once it leaves us in Tennessee on its way to Africa!!

In the end, we are going to crop the photos and then attach them together so that it appears that The Violet Ribbon is unending.. all the way to Ethiopia!

And when we finally meet our little Violet for the first time, we will tie The Ribbon to her wrist, connecting ourselves, connecting all of us, to her (and to each other) forever :)

How freaking adorable is that?!?! Seriously?.. 

So pleeeeeease send a photo to:   thevioletribbon@gmail.com
We'll post our first one ASAP! And if you go somewhere new and want to post another one, that's great too! Send them all!!

I will post photos and blog about the ribbon's adventures and other daily bits of interest as we wait and wish for our family to be complete..

With much love and gratitude,

Summer and Stuart