Help!

Cayolyn Twietmeyer and Project Hopeful do a LOT to help others. This time she and her family need a little assistance of their own.

The Twietmeyers brought home Selah in summer 2008 and are finally able to bring her brother and sister home. They are traveling THIS FRIDAY May 7!! There have been many unexpected last minute travel expenses for these long awaited and beloved children. Some friends bought an Ipod Touch to raffle off. They need around $4000. Please consider a donation in any amount to the Twietmeyer adoption fund for the sole purpose of bringing home Andarge and Eyerusalem. Go to Cayolyns blog to donate!

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Just When...

...I thought I was getting better about posting at least three times a week I blew my streak. I have many excuses though. I'll be explaining more in depth. Be forewarned I have lots to catch you up on.

The big bomb dropped on us today. Ethiopia has changed their requirements for international adoptions. They now require families to be present for court. This means we will be traveling anywhere from 4-12 weeks after our dossier arrives in Ethiopia (this is because we will already have our referral for A*. A referral is the official way of saying we've been matched with him)

After court we will have to leave our little guy (unless Dustin and I decide we want to stay in country longer) and wait until the government conducts another investigation which could take anywhere from 2 1/2- 3 months.

So we could be traveling back to Ethiopia fairly soon here. Stay tuned for updates :-)

We are still waiting for our Police Clearance letters to arrive. We can't move forward until those get here, so please keep praying friends!

In other news guess who signed up to co-lead a Girl Scout troop? Yup. I'm a little nervous but very thankful I have a great co-leader to team up with. I'm curious as to how much time this will eat up during my week? I am praying that once we find our groove it won't be more than a few hours a month for prep work.

Also, aside from being on the Board of Directors for the AZ branch of America World Adoption Association Dustin and I will be helping out as Associates holding Adoption Seminars. We are really looking forward to that!

Did I mention I am also helping my mom plan an adoption conference at her church in November?

Oh, and I'm planning to attend the orphan summit in Minneapolis the end of April. I'm super excited about that because Project Hopeful is going to be there. And, I love Project Hopeful!

Gee is there anything else?!

Nope I think that pretty much covers things.

As you can tell I've been pretty busy here lately. I've got lots on my plate but all very worthwhile things.

This week is spring break for the girlsies so we're enjoying sleeping in, staying up late and goofing off all day. Doesn't get much better than that!

Just The Good This Time

I've got straight up good news for ya. No bad news chaser.

I figured you'd be as happy as I was to hear that we can get A* home sooner than six months of treatment in country.

I spoke with Carolyn from Project Hopeful today. She gave me all the necessary info. The deal is that once A* has been under treatment for two weeks he would be eligible to file a waiver. Since we're still waiting on our HS he'll be long past that two week mark by the time we pass court, etc., and are ready to come get him.

We'll have to file the 601 waiver (you know that one. It's the one all families adopting HIV+ kiddos used to have to file BEFORE the awesome new law was passed to remove discriminatory bans on HIV+ immigrants. Seeing as HIV isn't communicable if you ARE NOT participating in AT RISK BEHAVIOURS.) This means more cost to us and a few extra bureaucratic hoops to jump through. But that ain't no thang if it means we can get our boy home sooner!

I can't express how grateful I am to have a resource like Project Hopeful at our disposal. If you are adopting an HIV+ child don't hesitate to utilize Project Hopeful's knowledge and expertise.

So, all this is an answer to prayer. And a huge relief.

We're still heartbroken that A* has to suffer with such a serious illness. It breaks our hearts that we cannot be there with him during this time. But we are relieved to know we can still bring him home sooner than six months! If we could just get that dern HS back!


By the way, Project Hopeful is working on some new initiatives for holistic HIV+ orphan care. 157 Million Orphans and Project Hopeful have teamed up to create these unique CHOSEN 1 tee shirts which will fund their work. Head over and pick one up. You'll look great in it!