just love...

i just want to shout out a big THANK YOU to those who have already placed orders for coffee in our just love store!! to be honest, i wasn't sure that anybody would be interested in ordering because, although the coffee is super good, it's also super expensive...needless to say, i was really excited when i checked our account and saw that a bunch of orders had already been placed! So, in the spirit of monday morning coffee sipping, here is my plug for our just love coffee fundraiser... if you love high-end, fair-trade coffee, click here to visit our store. $5 from each bag sold goes directly towards bringing ruby home, yay!

first post...

ok, i'm going to throw this right on out there, i am not, i repeat: NOT a blogger. thus, i have no idea what to write as my very first blog post. i definately feel that it should be a momentous writing, one to stir the hearts and dampen the eyes of anybody who stumbles upon it, however, it's not looking like that's the direction we're heading. instead, how about i just treat this first post as an introduction...an ice-breaker of sorts. my name is christina. my husband, chad, and i are tumbling down the crazy road of international adoption. in november 2010 after the mid-atlantic orphan summit, we filed our very first piece of paperwork and have been filing and chasing papers ever since. we've just completed the totally humbling, not to mention thoroughly invasive, process of the homestudy and are ready to move onto greater things, although we're not really sure what those things are yet. i hear they involve exciting milestones like more fingerprinting, immigration paperwork, and a letter explaining ourselves to the ethiopian government...only slightly intimidating. truthfully, this blog is probably a very good idea, considering that i am (far) beyond excited about this adoption. it is what occupies all of my thoughts and conversation these days and now that i'm blogging my dear friends and family will have the choice to read or to spare themselves. for instance, if you and i were having a conversation about how you had a wonderful night out last night i would be nodding and smiling politely, but inside i would be thinking about the first time i get to lay my eyes on our new baby girl...wondering what she looks like, where she is right now, what kind of baby lotion i plan to use, and what outfit she should wear home on the 13 hour plane ride from addis(?)...you get the idea. anyhow, we don't yet know who our baby girl is going to be, that bit of excitement is still a while away. we do know that she will have been born in ethiopia and that we have given her the name ruby...it's our first gift to her. so for now, i will blog to ask those who love us and those who don't know us to pray for ruby, till the fundraising and the paperwork come to an end and we can have her home with us, her forever family.