Rome Trip

As many of you know our I660A is only good for one year and that is just about here. Aug 20 will be our one year mark so we had to go to the US embassy. We can't have the documentation worked on at the consular's office here in Naples, it has to be through the embassy in Rome. so, off we go...... Mike command was generous enough to let him have 2 days of special liberty- Praise God!! It didn't count again his leave time!! Well, we haven't done any traveling since we've been here so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. We caught the train out of Aversa at about 6:45 and got there about 8:30 (PM). That was nice because we still had some daylight left.
By the time we got to the hotel the sun was gone, but the walk was very nice. The streets were lined with these wonderful trees. It doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary, but we haven't seen that in a while. We checked out the hotel and an apartment they had for rent. After finding out that the apartment had no airconditioning we opted to stay in the hotel. The room was so small that the bed took up most of it. European to the max. It was funny. Very nice though. All we needed it for was to sleep and shower. There are pictures so that you can see. I have to say it was probably one of the cleanest rooms I have ever seen.
The next morning we got up early and headed down to the embassy and thank God I took a print out of our appointment made online because they had no record of our appointment. Then they didn't want to let Mike or Willow come in. They said that since we didn't have separate appts. listed for the three of us then I would be the only one allowed in. I told them that it didn't make any since to make separate appts. when on the options 3 people was chosen and our paper work would all be on one account. They agreed and let us all into the embassy. Since everything for us was still on file and all we had to do is renew our fingerprints, the process from there just took a few minutes and we were out the door.
From there we went and bought tickets for the hop on, hop off bus, very cool, if you haven't done it I recommend it. We were able to tour the city of Rome and see all of the sights. We got off and saw the Spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi), several Chapels and just enjoy the tour. HOT, HOT, HOT. Oh man was it hot though.
Oh guess what?! We even had lunch at Burger King!! I know, I know we are in Italy. Well, we've been here for a couple of years so for us Burger King is a treat. We were so happy. You wouldn't believe how many Americans we saw in there though. Assuming that they must live here also we got into a conversation with a family and they just laughed. They were there on vacation and just had to get something to eat and couldn't find an Italian place to eat. Boy, how ironic that?
After touring the city by bus we also took advantage to the metro system, which is totaly amazing. 4 euro gets you a ticket for 24 hours any where it goes. We saw so much that in a was I have to stop and think because we packed so much in in that one day.
Ok, I'll have to finish up later. Mike and Willow are calling..


Blessings,
Meg

Homeschool graduation ceremony

The Naples Christian Home School Association (NCHA) held it's yearly graduation ceremony on May 30, 2008. It was really great to see each of the children recognized for their achievements. As you can imagine there is no quarterly awards ceremony. So this is the way of recognizing each child's achievements. First there was a talent show, which Willow did not want to participate in, followed by the Association president calling each family up separately. As our children's teachers we came up first and presented our children with their certificates of completion. Following that there was a small reception held in the fellowship hall. Needless to say, everyone was very happy. I forgot my camera!!! But my friend, Nicole took plenty of pictures for us. It's just a matter of getting them from her now. I'll get them posted as soon as I can.
Love,
Meg

Rumors that Vietnam is closed to adoption

The rumor is that Vietnam is closed to adoptions with the US. Ok, here is what is going on. They are not closed. The current contract between the US and Vietnam was to be renewed as of May 1, 2008 if there was going to be a renewal. The contract was not extended, therefore this contract will run out on Sept. 1, 2008.
Does this mean that adoption at that point is over between our two countries? There are many variables so that is hard to say. First, they are still in the process of devising a new contract or extending this one. Secondly there is always more than one circumstance. So no one knows for sure what is going on. Don't count us out, God has a way of working these things out for us. Look what he has done so far.
If you would like, you can go to the Department of State website you will be able to look at the documents for yourself and read everything that has taken place.

Blessings,
Meg and Mike

Happy Mother's Day

We want to wish our Moms a Happy Mother's Day. We got to talk to one of you, but were unable to reach two of you. We hope your days were wonderful and we miss you.
For those of you who know that Willow got hurt at cheer practice we just want all of you to know that she is ok.
Last Wednessday Willow was thrown into the air, she is the flyer for her group on the team, and missed. What happened was that when they through her instead of throwing her straight up they were off and through her at an angle to the back. She went completely over the group and landed on the ground on her back. Immediately Dawn, a friend of mine ran down and started praying for her. When we took to her over to the emergency room they said that she had strained the muscles in her back. They didn't expect for her to be able to do much for about a week. For two days she couldn't. For most of the week she couldn't lift her arms above her head, but by the time the next week rolled around she was just fine. The coach will no longer let the group throw her, only lift and do smaller stunts. She is so upset. She's ready to go again. I just said that's the spirit. But, I had to tell her to just let the coach be the coach that she is just keeping her safe. Which is just fine with us.
That's all the news we have for now.
Have a blessed day.
Meg

God is good

Well, more good news. We are now number 4 on the list. Still within that list are a couple of lists. We are still number 1 for a 13 month old to 47 month old little girl and number 4 on the list for a 0-12 month old. We are so excited and thank all of you so much in standing firm in faith and praying for us.
Blessings,
Meg

Number 7!!!

You know what that means right?!!! We have now moved up to number 7 on the waiting list. We haven't received an update for Los Ninos this week, but at the end of last week when we received our update we found out that we are now number 7 on the list. Things are really starting to move, Praise God! We are believing God to go get her before the end of June. That is what our hearts' desires are.
The names, as everyone wants to know what we plan to do....
It really all depends on how old she is. If she is an infant then we will name her and leave her given name as her middle name (depending of course on the meaning). If she is on the older end of our age range then we will leave her name and give her a middle name (again, depending on the meaning).
Mike Willow and I went to Pompeii today and it was amazing. I will post pictures soon. Tonight we are really tire so we are going to go to bed, but I wanted to let everyone know what is going on.

Blessings,
Meg

We're Back

Well, I know it's been a while. I'm going to give a brief update. We hope everyone is doing well.
Laurie, congratulations on real estate licensing. Kristen congratulations on your marriage.

As you can imagine many changes have taken place since Jan. Our friends Joe and Lynsey received their two children from Ethiopia and they are beautiful inside and out. We will miss you guys here in Italy, but I'm sure your new duty station will be wonderful and you'll make wonderful new friends soon.
Another couple Marla and Matt are just about to go and get their little girl from China-CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

For us many things have changed also. Willow is now being home schooled and we love it! Talk about less stress, and it also provides a great time for just the two of us before the baby comes. Of course we can't wait for the end of the school year, just like anyone else.
Willow is still active in cheer and getting really good. I know, I know everyone wants to know where the baby is.
What we do know is that there have been two referrals come to our agency in the last couple of weeks, but they went to other families. We've moved up two spots on the list putting us at number 8 now. Now, as some of you know, being number 8 on the list doesn't mean we'll necessarily be the eighth couple to receive a child. We could be, but if a child is chosen that suits our family best then they will chose us. We are faithfully standing firm that God will bring her to us soon.
We hope all of you had a wonderful Easter, we sure did.
Love,
Meg

Mike is off to Colorado

A few days ago we got word that Mike would be going to Colorado for a conference and so we took him to the Naples airport Sat. morning bright and early at 4:30 in the morning. Ok, maybe it wasn't so bright, but man it was early. I talked to him briefly this morning and he is there and fine. I told him that I would find a way to ski is I were there for a week, but he said, to his surprise it is very nice during the day and just down to about freezing at night. I think we got the cold weather here. It is so cold!!! That's ok, I've gotten really good at making a big fire. We will get Mike next Sat. morning. He was so upset that he would miss going to get Hannah and Habtamu in Rome by one day, but we'll all see them soon.

Now that brings us to our own adoption. So far we haven't heard anything further from Los Ninos. Jason just keeps telling us that he hasn't heard anything either and that as soon as he does he'll let us know. That's fine, she's coming we know it. Just keep us in your prayers.

A few of you have asked me what our expenses are and while we are not allowed to talk about agency fees or even the country's fees; I can let you know that our goal was $25,000. We paid the agency all of their fee except one small portion due at a later time and have almost gotten all of the Vietnam fee together at this point!! What a blessing. From here we just start saving for the airfare, embassy and court expenses and all around travel expenses while we are there.

For just a little different spin on things and some different pictures check out our blog on our myspace page. The link for our myspace page is on the main page of our blog here under our favorite links.



Thank you for your continued prayers and keep on reading to see what comes next!

Ferris family adoption

As many of you know, our friends the Ferrises are adopting from Ethiopia. Well, they are now officially the proud parents of the two newest additions to their family. We are so happy to welcome Habtamu and Hannah Ferris!! Joe went to Ethiopia yesterday to pick up the kids, Linsey stayed here in Italy with their two younger kids Noah and Olivia. Joe was able to get Hannah and Habtamu today and they are doing very well.
Willow and I are going to take Linsey to Rome Fri. to pick up Joe and the kids at the airport so keep them in your prayers. Linsey is about off her rocker with excitement waiting on them to come home. If you would like to check out her blog it is ourferrisfamily.blogspot.com

Happy New Year

We hope you all had a blessed Christmas and New Year holiday; we sure did. We missed being home with family and friends, but were with friends here in Italy and enjoyed ourselves very much. As you look to the right you'll see some of our friends whom we spent Christmas.

The Christmas play was a wonderful success at church and about 350 people were ministered to over the two days that we performed. What a blessing!

Today I called Los Ninos to find out if there is any news, but have not had a response. Hopefully Monday we'll have some news to post.
Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Oh, Laurie I got your card and picture yesterday, man Cole is getting so big. He has completely
out grown that little kid look. Save us some jerky!!!

Blessings,
Meg