Nursing Cover

A privacy cover for breastfeeding moms from the company "Udder Cover".

 From their website- uddercovers.com
Our rigid neckline gives you direct eye contact with baby.
Our fabrics are made of 100% breathable cotton.
Stainless steel d-rings allow fully adjustable neckline.
Machine washable.
Our covers allow mothers everywhere to breastfeed their babies in comfort, style and confidence anytime - anyplace!

Retail price- $34.95.  This cover is in like-new condition.   

NEW Starting Bid- $8

Messenger Bag

Small Messenger bag/purse.  Typical of the cultural dress of the Karen people of Burma.

Donated by: A Burmese refugee friend


Starting bid: $5

Amy Coe Peanut Shell Baby Sling

Blue and Brown Peanut Shell baby carrier.  Size S/M.  Gently Used.


Donated by: Jonas Hammond

Starting bid: $10

Newborn Sun Dress

Pretty sun dress by Carter's.  Size- New Born.  Gently used- worn once.


Donated by: Ava Hammond

Starting bid: $5

Adoption Fundraiser

We're gearing up for our big adoption fundraiser!  We'll be doing an on-line silent auction on this blog.  Your support will help us grow our family, and will help an orphan find a forever family!

The auction will begin at midnight (EST) on Saturday, Oct 27th and will end at 10pm on Tuesday, Oct 30th.

- The items will be posted with photos and descriptions, and you will leave comments on the item’s post in order to bid. Bids must be made in whole dollar amounts, and your email address must be included in your comment for your bid to count.

- There will be a starting bid on each item, and you may not bid below that. -Winners will be contacted through email.
-Payments will be made to a secure site, and items will be shipped after payment.

There are 3 ways you can help. 1) Donate an item (hand-made gifts, gift certificates, etc). If you would like to donate an item to the auction, please message me. 2) Invite your friends 3) Shop when the auction goes live!

See you back here on October 27th!

Jonas started Universal Pre-K last week, which means he is at the preschool at our church every weekday morning.  I started to get sad a few weeks before school started because it hit me that I wouldn't have any more mornings with Jonas.  I think it hit me how quickly this time with my kids passes and all of a sudden I could imagine him graduating from high school!  I told myself that if it seemed too rough for either of us, I could always drop him back to 3 days a week.  But a week and a half into it, I know I won't be doing that.  He loves school and I love that he is doing so well there. 

Two days after school started, look who learned to ride a bike without training wheels!

This video was taken the day after he learned.  The evening before, we were hanging out at our church playground and I walked inside for about 5 minutes.  Suddenly Ray and Jonas are coming to find me, telling me they have a surprise for me.  When I walked outside, Jonas jumped on a bike, got a push from Ray, and started riding!  He just learned how to do it on his first try a few minutes after I walked inside.  Yep, they really do grow up too fast!

My baby is getting big too!  She started going to a 2 year old play-group at the preschool this week.  She was so excited to go!  She put her backpack on and wore it like a badge of honor, like it identified her as a big girl.  She even sat still for me to braid her hair in 2 french braids.  When we got to her class, she marched right in without a moment's hesitation.  I think it helps that her class meets in the same room where she has Sunday School every Sunday.

In adoption news, we are planning a fundraiser at the end of October.  Since we have about $18,000 left of the estimated $32,000 to pay, we are going to have to think of creative ways to raise money.  So, we're going to do an on-line auction right here on this blog.  Right now I am working on gathering donations from family and friends.  So far we have some great things- a painting, baby blankets and sweaters, jewelry, a photo shoot, etc.  If you have an item that you would be willing to donate (and ship to the highest bidder), please send me an email- rlhammond3@gmail(dot)com.  Otherwise, be watching for our auction to begin!

Pictures of Summer

This has been my favorite summer as a mom so far!  I think I say that every year.  But the kids are old enough now to enjoy the same activities, and it makes playing with them a lot of fun.  Some highlights of our summer have been having Aunt "RaeRae" (Ray's little sister, RaeLynn) come to stay with us for a week, attending a Redwings game, going to the zoo, story time at the library every Monday, soccer, VBS, visiting the Holley Falls, and picnics at Hamlin Beach.  Jonas has learned how to swim in our pool without a floatie, and Ava has learned how to pedal her bike.  They are growing up too quickly!  Here are some pictures: 

 

Officially Waiting

I'm happy to say that we've completed our dossier and are officially in the waiting phase of the adoption!  Our agency has recently increased the estimated wait time for a referral to 18-24 months, with more increases likely.  Ray and I have decided to prepare ourselves for a 3+ year wait (we can be pleasantly surprised if it happens sooner!).  I can't say that we were thrilled with the news of the longer wait.  I might have freaked out just a little bit.  It caused us to re-evalute whether we were supposed to adopt again from Ethiopia, another country, or domestically.  We also considered whether we should pursue older child adoption.  But after much prayer and research, we feel a lot of peace about sticking it out and following the original plan- to adopt an infant of either gender, 0-2 years old, from Ethiopia.  I have to say, I'm a make-a-plan-and-see-it-to-the-end kind of girl, so the unknowns of life and factors beyond my control make me  uneasy.  When the wait times increased again I felt a little bit of my control slipping away.  I started to worry that we could be waiting 5 years and still not have our child home, or that maybe Ethiopia would close it's doors to international adoption, as many other countries have done in the past.  What if we get 3 years into it and the program closes and we lose all the money and time we've invested?  But as I struggled with all of this, God reminded me that this IS completely out of my control, but it's not out of His control.  If the very worst of my thought-up scenarios happens, God is still in control and still has a plan for our family.  So, we're stepping out in this journey God has for us.  I'm sure there will be many more lessons for me to learn along the way!    

I'm also mindful of the fact that somewhere in Ethiopia, our next child's birth mother is probably about to become pregnant sometime soon.  I find myself noticing pregnant women more now and feeling a bit envious at how beautiful and glorious they look and the miracle that's happening in their bodies. Which is funny because I don't think I ever felt beautiful and glorious when I was pregnant with Ava.  I felt big, awkward, and frumpy.  But I do miss feeling Ava kick and move inside of me and trying to take care of myself to take care of her.  I feel a little sad that I won't have that connection from the beginning with our next child.  But I feel guilty to think that way because our child's birth mother is about to enter a crisis of love, and pain, and sacrifice.  She will make one of the bravest decisions a mother could make for her child.  My life will be forever connected to hers, and I worry about her.  I already know a bit about this kind of relationship with a woman I've never met.  Sometimes when I look into Jonas' beautiful eyes framed by long curly lashes, I wonder if I am looking into the eyes of his birth mother.  When he cracks us up with his humor, runs us down with his energy, or baffles us with his fiery temper, I can't help but wonder what his birth mother was like.  I like to think that we'd be friends....

Well, enough serious stuff for now!  I haven't posted pictures in awhile, so here are some just for fun!

Playing dress-up.  Every day is Halloween at our house!

Easter morning before church.  Jonas came up with his pose all on his own.

Outside our church on Easter morning.

Home Study- Done!

An update on our last prayer request- Our home study was approved and we received 3 notarized copies of the report in the mail yesterday!  Today I sent our I-600A, along with copies of our birth certificate, our marriage certificate, and a check for $890 to USCIS.  Now we wait for a letter to arrive in the mail from USCIS for an appointment to get fingerprinted (for a third time since we started the adoption process this time).  After the fingerprinting appointment we wait for our I-171H (Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition) to arrive in the mail.  This is the last piece of paper we will need to complete our dossier and start the wait for our next little Ethiopian blessing!  All this waiting is getting us somewhere...eventually!

Blessings and Waiting

He's done it again!  God has gone and blessed our socks off with his amazing provision.  Both times we made the decision to follow God's call to adopt, we knew that God would have to provide the money for us to do it.  It would be literally impossible for us to come up with the estimated $28,000- $38,000 on our own (unless we didn't eat for a year and moved our family into a van down by the river).  So, we stepped out knowing that where God calls, He provides the way.  There were countless ways that God came through and supplied the money last time (raises at work, an adoption grant from Shaohannah's Hope, and generous gifts from friends and family members).  But I will admit, I was a bit more worried about the money this time.  We had some tax return money to start out with, but I wondered where the rest would come from.  I doubted that anyone would feel led to support our adoption financially this time because we already have 2 kids and, as far as we know, infertility isn't an issue this time.  It's a good thing God doesn't think like I do.  He reminded me again today that He HAS called us to adopt and He WILL provide.  But this isn't about us really.  It's about a baby in Ethiopia who may or may not be born yet.  God knows this baby and has a plan for his/her life, and for some reason, God has chosen Ray and I to be a part of His plan for him/her.  This is the miracle of adoption.  Along the way, Ray and I get to experience the little miracles that bring us together as a family.  We received a card in the mail today from friends of friends.  Inside was an encouraging note and a check for $1000.00 to help with our adoption expenses.  We've never met these generous people.  But God has given them a passion for adoption and a concern for orphans and they are obediently living out God's call on their lives to support adoption.  Wow.  It just blows me away.  God is so awesome, and I'm so thankful for how he works through his servants!

Earlier today I had written a sort of adoption update listing all the delays we've experienced in the process so far.  Everything seems to be taking so much longer this time.  But I've decided not to post my lamenting because it doesn't seem to matter now.  God has a plan and He knows the timing.  I will ask for prayers though.  A rough draft of our home study report is with our family coordinator at our agency's office in Virginia.  She needs to review it and send it back to our social worker for corrections.  Once it is corrected it needs to be sent to the AWAA NY office for approval, and then back to our social worker to be notarized.  I would really, really like all of this to happen before our social worker gets on a plane headed to Armenia for her own adoption next Saturday.  Once we have our home study report we will be able to apply for the I-171H, the last document we need for our dossier.  Getting the I-171H could take about 2-3 months, so I want to get the ball rolling.  Our official wait for a referral doesn't start until our dossier is on it's way to Ethiopia, and right now the wait is 14-18 months with increases in wait time expected.  So, my prayer request is that the process to finalize our home study will go smoothly and our social worker will be able to send us the notarized copies before next Saturday!

1st Snow

The kids were very excited to see our first snow! It made me excited to see it too. :) It was barely enough to cover the grass, but that didn't matter to them. I guess I'm in the blogging mood, because I thought I'd share the pictures!

Christmas and Stuff

I realized when I logged in here that it has been months since I last wrote anything. I am such a bad blogger. It seems like I am so busy doing life that I don't feel like writing about it! For the handful of you who still actually read this blog, here goes...

We've had a really mild Fall and have spent every last chance we could get playing outside. I confess that I've never been a huge fan of winter, but now with my 2 small kids I actually dread it. Jonas has calmed down quite a bit from when he was a toddler and literally never walked... because... why walk when you can run? But he still has an extraordinary amount of energy that he needs to let out through rough and tumble play. Otherwise he tends to take it out on his sister by trying to tackle her, sit on her, jump over her, etc. Ava, for her part, is pretty used to his rough play and can take a lot, but we all reach our limits. One of his favorite activities last year was to pretend he was a race car and run laps around our dining room table with Ava toddling behind him. And yes, I gladly let them do it. I just needed to give frequent reminders to be a nice race car and to pass Ava slowly and carefully. With all that being said, now that the weather is turning colder I have actually found something that makes Jonas sit still for awhile. He loves any craft project with paint and glue. Ava really enjoys crafts too, and is old enough this year to know not to eat the paint and glue. So we have been keeping busy with crafts. I am really not a creative person, but I came up with a lot of project ideas thanks to some web searches. We haven't gotten very far down on my list of ideas though because the kids are having so much fun with popsicle sticks. You would be surprised what you can make with popsicle sticks (stars, picture frames, etc). ****** Spoiler alert for our family members***** We plan to give some of these creations out as Christmas presents!

Jonas likes putting googly eyes on just about anything....

Ava prefers fake diamonds. :)

Glue and paint!

We had fun picking out our Christmas tree. We waited until the kids woke up from their naps and arrived at the tree farm at 4:15pm, about 15 minutes before they were closing for the day. We had to walk quickly up to the trees and we picked the first one that looked good and was small enough for our living room. It was actually fun to pick one so quickly. When we went back to pay for it the kids were treated to some lukewarm "hot" chocolate and cookies, and they were each given a little jingle bell to hang on the tree.

The kids were "big helpers" with the tree decorations. OK, it was actually kind of stressful for me, but I didn't let them know. I could barely get another ornament out before one of them was back asking, not so patiently, for another one to hang on the tree. Many of the ones they hung wound up on the same branches. But in the end, the tree got decorated, the kids had fun, and Ray snapped some cute pictures.

Ava is too little to remember that Christmas involves presents, but this is the first year that Jonas definitely remembers. He reminds us often of the things he wants for Christmas. Lucky for us, the things he wants don't cost too much money. And, at the risk of sounding cheap, we actually get many of his gifts second-hand from garage sales, Ebay, Craigslist, etc. Our kids are too young to notice that their presents didn't come in brand-new packaging, it allows us to get them more than we could otherwise, and maybe even helps our environment a bit.

Ray and I have been talking a lot this year about the things we will do to try to get our kids' focus off the gifts they will get, and on to what Christmas is really all about. We want our kids to know that Christmas is about the birth of our Savior, and we want our kids to be generous to others as God has been generous to us. We have tossed around a lot of ideas of how to teach these things and have started to implement some of them. First, we explained to Jonas that many kids around the world don't have enough food to eat and then we looked through the World Vision gift catalog together as a family. We decided to buy a goat and 2 chickens to help 2 families in need. We also have a good old fashioned construction paper advent chain, and each day when we take off a loop we read the Christmas story from one of their Children's Bibles. I made these little cards on sticks (good old popsicle sticks!) that the kids can use as puppets when we read the Christmas story. Today Jonas grabbed Gabriel in one hand, and the Shepherds in the other and said, "Do not be afraid!" So I guess he is listening. :)

We talk a lot about how Christmas is Jesus' birthday, and I am planning to make a Birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day. Jonas gets a bit jealous about the fact that it is Jesus' birthday because he tells me he wants it to be his birthday. But I remind him that we celebrate Jesus' birthday by giving gifts to each other, and that seems to make it OK. The other day though, Jonas told me, "I don't want Jesus. I want Santa Claus!" Ray and I have never really talked to Jonas about Santa, but he knows who is he and what he is all about. I don't want to keep my kids from having fun. I grew up believing in Santa and it was magical and exciting. But at the same time, Jonas' statement really hit me. I mean, if you were 3 years old, would you choose the jolly guy in a bright red suit who uses magic and flying reindeer to bring gifts to kids or a humble savior in a manger? And if Santa is the focus of Christmas, what about generosity? Why would kids need to even think about giving gifts to the poor if giving gifts is Santa's job? So I told Jonas that Santa is fun, but that he is pretend, just like Lightning McQueen, Spiderman, and Curious George. We can still leave cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer and visit Santa at the mall, but I want my kids to know that Santa is just a fun character, and not the real deal. A couple of coworkers scolded me when I told them this. Maybe I am just a big meanie, but this is the decision that Ray and I have made and I think our kids will survive.

Before I end this long post let me just give a quick adoption update! We finished all our home study paperwork (phew!) at the beginning of November and waited excitedly for a phone call from our social worker to start our home visits. Instead, our home study coordinator called to tell us that our social worker will be on medical leave until mid-December. At the time I was a little disappointed, but it is already almost mid-December! So sometime soon we should be able to get those 4 home visits out of the way and then we'll be able to finish up our dossier.

We've started the paper-chase for our home study and dossier! The home study coordinator wants us to gather all of our home study documents and mail them to him before he will schedule our 4 home visits. So it will probably be mid-October before we even meet our social worker. There seems to be a little more required this time for the home study (such as a vet exam and vaccinations for our cats), but so far it doesn't seem to be too difficult to get together. Many of the documents needed for our home study will also be used for our dossier. And I found out some GREAT news! This time we only have to get 2 documents certified at the county and state level for our dossier. Certifying everything is what seemed to be the most time consuming and annoying last time. We also found out that we can use the criminal background check that we need for our home study for our dossier. Last time our home study provider couldn't request more than one copy and we were required to get fingerprinted a second time and pay a separate fee. So maybe the paper-chase won't be too bad this time! It also helps that we put the Adoption Tax Credit and the First-time Home Buyer Tax Credit directly into our savings for this purpose. So we have the money we need to at least submit our dossier, and then we will have time before we need to make any more payments.

I think I am also less stressed about the process this time because I am not aching for this child to join our family YESTERDAY like I was with Jonas. This time I have 2 wonderful kids to keep me busy. Here are some pictures of one our recent adventures; a treasure hunt!

Notice that Jonas is wearing his winter boots. He found them that day and literally wore them ALL day. He even asked me if he could wear them during his nap (stinky feet!), which I allowed. He was quite upset when I did not allow him to wear them during his bath that evening or to bed that night.

Jonas decided that they needed to dig for treasure too.

Treasure hunting is hard work, so we had to stop for a juice break at Grandma and Grandpa's

Then we made a Treasure chest

And filled it with treasures!

Just don't tell Jonas that I had to throw the treasure and treasure chest away today. I noticed some little white wormy things crawling around inside the box (maggots???!!!).

Adopting Again!

I am excited to announce that after much thought and prayer, we have decided to begin the process to adopt from Ethiopia again. We applied to our agency 2 weeks ago, and received a call on Thursday that we were accepted into the Ethiopia program! Soon we will begin our Home Study and the paper-chase for our dossier. We plan to request an infant (0-18 months) of either gender. This most likely means that we will be matched with a boy, because the waiting list for girls is much longer than for boys. We prayed about adopting an older child this time, but in the end we felt it would be best for our family to stick with the already established birth order. That doesn't mean that we won't be open if God should lead us in another direction as we move forward though.

Here are some questions we have heard that I will try to answer, in case you have the same questions:

1) How long will it take? The whole process will probably take about 2 years this time. It will take 4-6 months to get our dossier together. Once our dossier is in Ethiopia, our agency estimates that we will wait about 10 months for a referral. But my experience is that the wait time always increases as we go through the process. So I'm guessing we'll wait about a year for a referral. Then we will need to travel to Ethiopia twice. The process has changed since we brought Jonas home, and now families must be present for court in Ethiopia. So we will travel once for court, and then a second time for an embassy appointment and to bring the baby home. The wait time between the court date and bringing the baby home will depend on whether or not we pass court (it is very common not to pass at first. If that happens, they can pass us later without us in-country).

2) Will it be easier for you since you have already adopted from Ethiopia? Well yes, I guess knowing what it takes to get the dossier together and the roller-coaster of emotions that goes along with adoption could make it a bit easier for us this time. But no, we get no special favors from our agency or from the government of Ethiopia to speed the process along. We have to jump through all the hoops, just like everyone else.

2) Have you tried to get pregnant again? No we haven't. To be honest, this one was tough for me. I wanted to adopt again, but I also wanted to get pregnant again and I couldn't figure out which I wanted more or first. I struggled with choosing adoption over pregnancy right now. Not because I feel a stronger bond to Ava than to Jonas, but because in my experience pregnancy was so much easier than adopting. Sure, I remember feeling tired and overly-emotional through much of my pregnancy, but for the most part I had it pretty easy. But adoption is expensive and the process can be so hard. ****First the dossier**** running to and fro collecting our life on paper (this time with 2 kids in tow), notarizing it and authenticating it a million times, and getting fingerprinted and then fingerprinted again (as if the prints change). ****Then the wait for a referral**** living every day wondering if our child is out there somewhere. Is he conceived yet? Has he been born? Is he getting the nourishment he needs? Is he with family or in the orphanage? Is he loved? When will the agency call us to tell us about him????? ****Then the wait after the referral**** Staring at a face in a picture trying hard to imagine the personality that goes along with the image. Wondering if he is OK, healthy, and loved. Hating that every day that goes by is another day that he will be cared for in an institution instead of with his family. ****And then coming home**** Teaching this baby we already love so much that it is OK to trust us and love us back. Feeling the rejection every time he pushes us away. Wondering if certain behaviors are his natural personality, just a developmental phase, or some emotional residue of his abandonment and lack of attachment in his first months of life. One adoptive mom I spoke with said that she feels like she needs to be a psychologist on top of being a mom. I have definitely felt that way at times.

So, now you might be wondering why we decided to pursue adoption instead of trying to get pregnant. Well, here's why:

- We believe that one of the reasons God created us and brought us together as a couple was to adopt children. Seriously.
-We believe that God does not want us to wait, but that He wants us to pursue adoption now.
- We want Jonas to have someone in the family that looks like him and with whom he can share the experience of being adopted.
-We know that the path of adoption isn't always easy, but that the blessings that come from adopting are so great they can't even be measured.

So we're jumping in with both feet, feeling absolutely certain that we are doing the right thing. Let the journey begin!

Birthday Boy

Jonas turned 3 years old this week!

He asked for a monkey cake, so I did my best.

Playing with a new toy. He loves all things cars and trucks lately.

Dare I say we really are finally moving out of the "terrible-twos"? Jonas still has his fair share of temper tantrums, but they are less frequent and less intense now(unless he's tired). His imaginative play is developing, and he can play with his toys by himself for awhile without finding mischief and trouble. He even will occasionally share toys with his sister without first being coaxed to do so. He says the funniest things and cracks us up all the time.

We are in the midst of potty training. We've actually tried on and off for almost a year, and after a day or two I always ended up concluding that he just wasn't ready. But this time we've seen some progress and we're sticking with it. He's definitely ready. Yesterday we made it all day with only one accident in his big boy underpants!

Happy Birthday to my big boy!

There are millions of orphans in Ethiopia. In a country the size of Texas, millions of kids would grow up without parents if it weren't for adoption. I count myself amazingly blessed to be the mom of one of these precious kids. We wanted him. We needed him. He is no longer an orphan. He is my son. And at the same time, in a perfect world, adoption would not have been necessary for Jonas. Gulp. As much as I don't like to think about it, things like disease and poverty would never have separated Jonas from his birth family. But because we live in a broken world, I believe that adoption is the best plan for kids that have already been orphaned. God chose Ray and I to become Jonas' best and I will be forever grateful that He allowed us to be a part of His plan for Jonas' life.

With that said, Ray and I have recently been talking a lot about adopting again. We would like to adopt from Ethiopia again, and we'd like to start the process in about a year. The more we talked about it, the more I started to think about this next child, and the more excited I got. Then, a few days ago, I found out some disappointing news. The Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia announced that, starting today, they would decrease the number of adoption cases they review each day from 50 to 5. That's a 90% reduction! MOWA made the decision based on some abuses in the adoption process. They want to give themselves more time to review each case. I have always respected the cautions that Ethiopia takes to ensure that the kids that are being adopted were truly relinquished for adoption by birth families. But a 90% reduction in cases would GREATLY increase wait times for adoptive families, and even worse, it means that legitimate orphans could spend years in institutional care while they wait for their case to go before MOWA. Jonas will be 3 years old soon, and if this ruling had been in effect when he was a baby, he could still be living in an orphanage. That is sickening to me. It seems so unacceptable.

Please pray for MOWA, the orphans of Ethiopia, and waiting adoptive families. Pray for Ray and I too as we try to discern how God would have us to move forward with our adoption plans! I've been reminded that God holds the perfect plans for my life and my family. When it comes to building our family, it never seems to happen the way I envision it (but as much as I can't see it at the time, God's plan is always better than mine!).