H1N1

Got my H1N1 vaccine today. Bring it on swine flu!!

Whitfield Family Expansion Project – Update

Our family is expanding in an unexpected way. Low and behold, and much to our surprise, joy, thanks, and praise, we’re pregnant! We will be welcoming our little one in April 2010! We went to the doctor last week and confirmed that things are progressing well.

Now, to be clear: we are still very much dedicated to adopting our Ethiopian children. Of course, these plans will have to wait just a bit. We spoke with our Gladney case worker and we can re-enter the adoption process when this new addition of ours is 9 months old. Then, we will jump back in with both feet!

So, not long from now, we hope to have a pretty full house!

We are so happy to be blessed in so many ways! Thank you for everything you have done for us, for your love and support.

Love, Alli and Josh

And the Winner is…

Congratulations Rachel! $500 in giftcards should come in handy for a college girl!

THANK YOU to all of you who bought raffle tickets! THANK YOU to Tavish and Dan for the prizes and all the work you did! You guys have been our greatest support! We raised $1200 that will go toward out adoption! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!!

Joshua and Alli

No News...

Unless you’re waiting for adoption news!!

Pilgrim Holiness by Josh

Josh’s book is finally here! Well, the copies he ordered are on the way to our house and it’s available on Amazon.com. Here’s what the publisher, Wipf and Stock, has to say about it:

As an explicitly christological witness, martyrdom offers a limited but vital description of the present within the various and unpredictable arenas of living, suffering, and dying. That is to say, martyrdom is not the tragic conclusion of some fatal ideological conflict but a momentary truthful glimpse of present circumstances. Martyrdom reveals, clarifies, and illumines what we take for the real. Martyrs are therefore significant for the church today because they exhibit the sort of truthful living that refuses the claims of history and power without Christ; they show the sort of living and dying that returns forgiveness upon murder, and patience beyond domination. Meditating primarily on the second-century martyrdoms in Lyons and Vienne, France, Pilgrim Holiness offers a view of Christian martyrdom that challenges prevalent misunderstandings about what martyrs are doing in sacrificing their lives. Joshua J. Whitfield argues that martyrdom is a moment of truthful disclosure and thus a moment of forgiveness and peace—gifts for which we are in desperate need.

Way to go, Sweetie!!!

Win $500 in Gift Cards!!!

One lucky person will win $500 (or more) in gift cards! All you have to do is buy a Whitfield Family Expansion Project raffle ticket. A video of the drawing, to be held on September 26th, will be posted on our blog. Here are a few of the gift cards you could win:

* Walmart
* Target
* Starbucks
* Chili’s
* Walgreens
* Chick-Fil-A
* Visa
* On The Border
* Whataburger
* Jiffy Lube
* Cinemark Movie Theatre
* Quick Trip Gas Card
* The Cheesecake Factory
* Subway
* Petsmart
* Tom Thumb
* Chevron
* Macy’s
* Home Depot
* Bed Bath & Beyond

Tickets are one (1) for $5 or five (5) for $20. Find Josh or Alli (or one of their many eager relatives) to purchase your tickets. You can also e-mail us at aaingeATyahoo.com

Thanks to Tavish and Dan for dreaming up and organizing this awesome raffle!!!

Orphans Deserve Better

If you know me, you know that I don’t get worked up too often. But, the ads for this Orphan movie are making my blood boil! Maybe its motherly instincts starting early, maybe it’s my frustration for adults who can’t tell right from wrong, I don’t know. I feel sick to my stomach every time that commercial starts. Who came up with this? If making these kinds of movies is what they do for a job then what do they do for fun, kick puppies? To the people who are heartless enough to make this move I would like to say; good job exploiting children who have no one to take up for them. You should go pick on someone your own size. Please go to Orphans Deserve Better and sign the petition.

Still Waiting…

Three and a half months on the waiting list.

Too Cute!!

Tammy & Keanna modeling their "Whitfield Family Expansion Project" T's!

Passports Mailed

I just mailed both our passports to the National Passport Processing Center for renewal. I sure hope they make it there and back before we need to travel to Ethiopia!

Ethiopian Food Take Two

On New Years Eve Josh and I had “take one” of our Ethiopian food adventure. It was not the experience we had envisioned. The restaurant was “iffy” to say the least. This time we tried The Queen of Sheba in Addison and it was GREAT! We met up with my mom, my brother and a few of my cousins which made it even better. The staff was wonderful and the food was so good. Here are a few pictures of our Ethiopian dinner:

One of the most charming-and practical! -aspects of Ethiopian hospitality is the “hand washing ceremony” at the beginning and ending of every meal called “SEN’NA BERT.”Injera – Spongy, flat, sourdough bread used to pick up your food. You could ask for a fork, but they will give you a hard time about it!

The Queen’s Dinner – A taste of just about everything on the menu. I can’t say I loved all of it, but now I know what I want next time. Heart for Africa necklace that my cousins surprised me with (thanks Tavish, Dan, Danyel, and David)!

6 Years ago today!

There is No Me Without You

I started this book the day we went to our Information Meeting at Gladney…way back in October. No, it does not usually take me eight months to read one book. This book is different. Every time I picked up this book I found myself only being able to make it a few pages before I was overwhelmed by all the obstacles the people of Africa have faced and continue to face. That being said, it is a wonderful book that filled me with hope. I know that once our adoption is complete we will not stop trying to help the people of Africa. They will become a part of our family; to whom we will always be indebted and devoted.

Never being one for book reports, I’m including a review of the book from signsoflifebooks.com.

There are 4 million orphans in Ethiopia today. 1.5 million of these are due to HIV/AIDS, the rest to famine, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and other maladies from which people rarely die in the west. With only 75 million inhabitants, Ethiopia simply does not have enough adults to care for these children. To make matters worse, out of 190+ independent countries in the world, Ethiopia is at or near the bottom of any list of economic indicators you care to choose.

A few years ago Haregewoin Tefarra was a happily married middle class woman in Addis Ababa. Then she lost her 54-year-old husband to a heart attack and shortly thereafter her adult daughter to AIDS. Shunned by many friends and family members due to the severe stigma carried by AIDS in Ethiopia, Haregewoin felt as if her life had ended. She applied to the local church to be a hermit and live in a shed in the graveyard, close to her dead daughter. A wise priest had a better idea. Would she take in an orphan girl? Why not, she reasoned, her life was over. It wouldn’t matter one way or the other. A few days later the priest brought her a teenaged boy with the same entreaty. I may as well let him stay, she thought, my life is over anyway. Since then over 400 orphans have passed through her doors. She has poured out her heart and they have given her back her life.

This is the story of one woman’s fight to save the children of her country. Without training, without government support or funding, without help from any human source, Haregewoin has tirelessly struggled to save a handful from life on the streets, prostitution, AIDS and death that surely awaited them otherwise. Here also are the stories of a few families who, like the author and her husband, have adopted some of these orphans into their homes in middle-class America.

Melissa Fay Greene is an award-winning journalist who has published several social-conciousness raising books and numerous articles in notable periodicals from the New York Times to Goodhouskeeping. She is passionate about her topic and so can be forgiven for her occasional leftist rants and simplistic solutions (big drug companies = bad, Bush administration = bad). We’ve all heard about the AIDS orphan tragedy in Africa, but its easy to think of it as “way off over there”. This book puts a human face on the problem and brings it home. You must read this book - but be prepared to be changed.

Ethiopia – The Birth Place of Coffee

(After meeting our babies, this may be what Josh is most looking forward to!! No, I am not letting him bring his French press!)

Ethiopians have a very beautiful traditional coffee ceremony, its unimaginable for most Ethiopians to start a new day with out several cups of coffee. Coffee is the best drink an Ethiopian family offers to honor guests, as coffee ceremony is the best occasion for a get-together with neighbors and friends. Ethiopian coffee ceremony might have been created with the discovery of coffee itself in its south western heartland, in particular place called “Kaffa” from which, many experts of the uniquely fragrant and relaxing bean believe, the firm coffee has originated and joined the international lexicon. Coffee, café, etc.

Recent Activities – Adoption, etc.

Fr. Josh getting "Fun Flushed" by a preschooler!

Mom in the shade at St. Gregory's Springtacular.

The hard working "Whitfield Family Expansion Project" sales team.

Josh at our garage sale.

Our useless attempt to discourage garage sale hagglers.

Josh and Belle hanging out with our friend, Luke.

Springtacular!!

Our church, The Church of Saint Gregory the Great in Mansfield, Texas, is having our first ever Springtacular on Saturday, May 30th. My mom will be there selling our awesome “Whitfield Family Expansion Project” t-shirts and other goodies! Stop by from 8am to 3pm.

167,647.50 Birr! WHOA!

In US dollars that’s $15,000! Sounds like a lot, and indeed it is! We’re not daunted though. While on the waitlist, we’re in full fundraising mode. We’re selling shirts next week at our church festival, applying for grants (rejected by two so far but still applying!), and pinching pennies all over the place! We're hopeful it’ll all come together, but we ask your prayers. If you have any ideas, let us know! Thanks to all who have helped us out financially so far! We have been so blessed by you all!

Check Out Our Gear!

We’re Selling Shirts! Check out our unique design (Thanks Dan!) showing our heart for Ethiopia. Help out the “Whitfield Family Expansion Project,” order your shirt for only $15 today! Just e-mail your shirt size to aaingeATyahoo.com.

Wait Listed!!!

WOO!! HOO!! WE'RE ON THE WAITLIST!! We just got news that all our stuff with the FBI and Homeland Security etc. has been 'authenticated,' which means we are now on the waitlist. What are we waiting for? We're now waiting for a referral from the Ethiopian government. They align us with children they think best for us, and then after that we go through more stuff legal and medical, and then we're united with our family...that's what we're waiting for!

Now this waiting game can last anywhere from four to eight months or more...so, in short, no telling! Also, during this time we won't learn much about where we are on the wait list because this is sometimes sensitive for the many families on the list. So it's the dark side of the adoption moon...to strain a metaphor!

We're excited! Thanks to all who have helped us get this far!!

Early Easter Surprise!

It's not yet Easter, but the Bunnied One visited us early! And what a suprise! In our basket we found a very generous donation toward our adoption costs!

All we can say is THANK YOU! We are always finding ourselves surprised and thankful for the love of God as it comes through the love of our friends. Our Easter Bunny this morning didn't leave a name, but we were left with these very true and very wise words: "The Glory is God's". Indeed, it is.

We are so thankful to all of you who have given us help in every way...by your prayers and friendship, and by your material and financial help. We feel endlessly blessed, and we hope we can share this life of blessings with our children.

Thank You!

A Princess for our Princess

Today I got to watch “Sleeping Beauty” with my friend, Lilly. Lilly is three and loves all things princess. Before the movie started we saw a preview for the new Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog.” It looks really sweet and I’m super excited to see a Princess who looks like our future princess!

If she can do it, I can do it!

My cousin, Tavish, sent me this in an e-mail and I thought it was applicable to my situation!

In a zoo in California , a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth. The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve. After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only 'orphans' that could be found quickly, were a litter of weanling pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops? Take a look...

Approved!

We received our approval from Gladney and our completed homestudy. We already knew we were approved, but it’s nice to have the formal approval to mark off our endless “to do” list. So, we should get a kid any day now, right? Not exactly. We still have to get finish our dossier; get FBI clearance, and Homeland security clearance. Then, we get on the waiting list.

Love is patient…

We are trying to be patient with the adoption process, just as we hope to one day be patient with our children. Currently we are gathering documents for our dossier (a compilation of paper work to demonstrate to Ethiopia our “fitness” to adopt) and waiting for our completed homestudy. Some days it feels as if this is not real at all, but we know we will grow more anxious in the months to come.

A few dates we are looking forward to:
March 20-21 – Garage Sale
May 2 – Selling our adoption t-shirts at our church bazaar

Happy Epiphany!

On this holy day that marks God’s saving light, which shines on both Jews and Gentiles, this feast that celebrates the star the Magi followed, we give thanks that in Christ the Father calls all people to be his children. As God called forth a diverse family, we pray he may bless ours. We hope God blesses you and yours in this New Year! “O star of wonder…”

Our new Christmas Crèche is from Northern Malawi, a wonderful gift from Bill and Janie Parrott.