Joy & Sadness

I am writing today with excitement and a very heavy heart!

Yesterday we got a call from Toni (caseworker @ AGCI). She said that we were getting on a plane & going to Ethiopia to see our girls. Our court date is scheduled for April 25th. I was shocked. We will be on our way to see our sweet daughters in about 3 weeks. I would get to hug them, play with them, & tell them I loved them for the very first time. The day was crazy with phone calls and making plans.

Today I was surprised when Toni called me again. This was not one filled with joy but of much sorrow. Many of you know that I have been praying specifically for their birth mother during this time even before we had a referral. The love that she must have to want her girls to have a life where they feel loved and secure. Well we found out that our girl's birthmother passed away. A sadness filled the very pit of my stomach. The girls have not been told yet because our agency wants to be sensitive to the timing & make sure it is done with as much love & compassion as possible. I know God led us down this path for a specific reason. I know those girl's are mine just like I birthed them from my own body. I know that may be hard to understand for some but when I say they were "born in my heart" it is true. I want to protect them & take away the pain but I know that God is the true comforter. He has a plan for their lives even in the midst of this pain. I experienced this first hand over 2 years ago when my father passed. No words, love, or time can heal only the power of my heavenly father. I feel God took me on the journey of losing my earthly father, who I love with all my heart, to bring me to a place where I can love like I have never loved before. For my husband, children, mother, & most of all my heavenly father. I think back to the Garth Brooks song about missing the pain means missing the dance. I can say today that all of the pain is well worth where I am today but it has only been possible with my heavenly father. I want that for all of my girls. A relationship with their heavenly father that is unlike anything on this earth. We are only here for a season. This is not our home. If we are a believer we can look to being in heaven for eternity. Where there is no sadness, pain, or loss.

Please consider praying specifically for our girls in Ethiopia: 1. That the Lord would begin preparing their hearts for hearing about the loss of ther birth mother. 2. That the Lord would give the special mothers at Hannahs Hope (the orphanage) the strength as they share this news with our girls. 3. That the girls would feel the Lord's comfort. 4. That Luther and I will have the right words when writing our letters that will be read to them. 5. That as we prepare to meet each other this may begin a time of healing for the girls & they will one day understand that they were given up because they were loved.

Shots Shots & more Shots!!

Well yesterday Luther and I got our shots we needed to travel. We went to the travel clinic at Vanderbilt. We got our polio booster, meningitis, yellow fever,& typhoid. We already had hepatitis, flu, & tetenous. If not, we would have had those also. We also got a prescription for an antibiotic in case we need it while in country. I realized how lucky we are to live in America where we have access to these vaccines. We also have to use bottled water while in Ethiopia because we can not trust anything coming out of the faucet. So that means bottled water even when we brush our teeth. We can't eat fresh fruits & vegetables because they are washed in the water. Again, I realized how fortunate I am to live in a part of the world where I can drink water from my faucet. I praised God for allowing me to be able to live where I do not have to worry about this every second. I praised God that he was allowing me to bring my two girls home from Ethiopia where they would not have to grow up worrying about this. I think we live in our comfortable world and forget or just don't let ourselves think about what other people live with on a daily basis. I thank God for using this entire experience to open my eyes to what is happening in the world. I pray that I continue to get a glimpse of others the way God sees them and remember that we were ALL created in his image no matter where we are from. I know he has so much more to teach me as we continue on this journey.

Fundraiser

This week we are having an online fundraiser. Our friend Bonnie sells Thirty-One. She is helping us by giving her profits to us to help with our plane tickets to Ethiopia. Please go to this site & order some great items.

http://www.mythirtyone.com/bonniebowers/

*click my events
*click Ramsey Family Fundraiser
*click shop now

Remember that this online fundraiser is open from March 23-31.

Praying for the call!

How do I begin to tell you how much I already love you? The day I saw your faces, I knew that God had brought both of you to us. I just wanted to get on a plane and wrap my arms around you and bring you home. God placed you in my heart in October and I cannot wait until we can be together. I can't wait until "T" calls to tell us we have our court date. Our documents are being translated and some documents are in Washington D.C.. We are also waiting for the girl's birth certificates. We will continue to pray for you Esther K and Emma B. We love you so much!!!

Family of 6!

Wow Wow Wow!!! Well as of 2:04 yesterday we became a family of 6. Our family accepted the referral of two amazingly beautiful girls. I left the house with two beautiful gifts from God and am writing this as a mother of 4 beautiful gifts from God. I am so overwhelmed that God is allowing me to show his love to 4 girls. I write this as I cry tears of joy. What a humbling experience this has been. God has showed me that he is the one that truly knows our path. On October 12th, he spoke to me for the first time & asked me to listen to him on adopting. What a journey these past 5 months have been. I know that this is just the beginning. I am just so humbled. I have longed for them over thses months not knowing what they looked like. I saw K and B (we can't use their real names on our blog yet) and feel in love with them as soon as I saw their wonderful faces. I can't wait to hug them and comfort them. God has made them and I am just so in love with them. I can't wait to see the plans God has for their lives. I feel humbled to be their adoptive mother and that I get to help them see how much God loves them. I want them to know they are princesses to us and to the Heavenly Father that knitted them carefully together in their mother's womb. I have cried already over the tragedy and pain in their lives. I have prayed diligently for their birth mother. I hope to do her proud and be the very best mom to those sweet girls. I think about the bible verse my MaParker used to quote--"train up a child in the way she should go and when she is old she will not depart from it". God has given this command to parents and we are responsible for showing our children His way and being the example in our walk with him. I only hope that with my 4 girls I can strive to do this. It is only through the Lords guidance and a relationship with Him that this is even possible. I ask that you continue to pray for us and our daughters.

You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day. (Psalm 139:15, 16 MSG)

Looking Ahead!!

It costs anywhere from 28,000-30,000 to adopt from Ethiopia. This covers our home study, our Agency's paperwork & authorization process, international documents, flights (two trips to Ethiopia), and the adoption fees in the US and Ethiopia.

We have raised $9,000 so far towards our adoption. We have been so blessed to have so many family and friends help support us on this journey. You have bought necklaces and bracelets which have also supported the women in Uganda. Many of you supported our Valentine's dinner "Connecting Hearts".

We are now in the process of making sure we have the funds when we get the referral call for our child or children. This could happen in the next couple of months or it could take a year. We feel we need to start moving forward with raising the money so we have added a donation button & meter on our blog. Please feel free to share it with others. Everything that is donated will go into our adoption account. You can donate as little or as much as you feel God is leading you to. We are still selling the necklaces and bracelets also.

If you can not donate financially, please donate your prayer time to pray for our journey. We pray as a family each morning that the child or children coming into our family are being loved and cared for by special mothers in orphanages. We also want you to pray for the birth mother. Pray that she will be able to feel God's presence. I am still struggling with the pain that must occur for us to adopt. We know God has lead us on this journey for a reason. We take the responsibility of raising her child or children seriously and feel it begins with prayer for both of them. As a mother I want to raise this child or children like I would want someone to raise mine. I want to show God's love and just follow his lead.

Our March Numbers

We got our email from "T" (our case worker) at AGCI (our agency). We are very excited to have moved up 5 spots on the girls list and 1 spot on the sibling list. There has been a lot of movement over the past week--Yeah!!!. The girls and I decided to use sidewalk chalk and draw our new numbers. It was such a gorgeous day to be outside together. We are going to try to do something creative each month to help us while we are waiting.