June | 2012 | We Can't Adopt

a court date and a video

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Drew & Cassie

Two BIG things:

1. We got a court date! Really?! Everyone’s story of adoption is different but we never thought that Ethiopia would give us a day to appear in court so quickly. July 10th. Yep, that’s in 16 days! So we are kickin’ it into high gear, buying airline tickets and freaking out a little bit [actually a-lotta-bit]. Please pray for us as there are many details to figure out and line up before we leave to see Bruk and hold Bruk and kiss Bruk and make Bruk sick of big smiley blonde people. We can’t wait to see him! And I guess we won’t have to wait long!

2. If your the observant type you might have noticed that we like to share links to other blogs and organization on the right side of this page. One blog that we have grown very fond of is Give1Save1. It’s creative and informative but also has a beautiful “greater” purpose. An adopting family is featured every week and thousands of people get to hear that familie’s story. So, we submitted a video of our adoption story [the one we showed at the silent auction] and they picked us to be the family for this week! Many of you have already given so much to us so all we ask is that you share this video with your friends! We had lots of fun making it and think you’ll really enjoy it.

Click that big ol’ Give1Save1 banner to see for yourself!

calling all creative types

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Drew & Cassie

We just found out that there is a family from Florida traveling to Ethiopia in about 3 weeks. They’ll be going to the same house where Bruk is staying! Even though we can’t ask them to take pictures we will likely be able to send a “care-package” with them. Can you help us think of some creative ways to show this little guy that we love him without making that family carry a huge box? We don’t really know yet what an almost 1year old boy might like to look at/play with. Of course, we will probably send him at least a picture of “mommy and daddy” but there must be more clever ideas out there. So what do you think?

Also, lots of people have been asking to see our adoption story video from Silent Auction. Well, we are happy to say that it’s almost ready. If you check back on Monday [June 25th] we will post a link where you can watch the whole thing!

Thanks for checking in on us!

D&C

it’s happening

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Drew & Cassie

“It’s happening”, was all I could think to say when I saw the obvious subject line of an email on my phone. Cassie didn’t understand what I said at first so I repeated, “It’s happening NOW”. I [being the nerdy father already] quickly set up the tripod and camera. This was the moment we had been waiting for. Our case worker sent us pictures and a medical report and we were supposed to say “yes” or “no” to proceed with the adoption.

The video below is our reaction to seeing pictures of a sweet little 10 month old boy named Bruk!

We fell in love right away and are by all means going to pursue adoption of this little guy. The next step is to wait for the agency to set up a court date in Ethiopia. We don’t know how long that will take but we hope to see him at least by this Fall. As for pictures, we aren’t allowed to post any online just yet, but we can sure find a way to get some to you if your anxious to see him!

We are so thrilled. He is the most beautiful kid we have ever seen!

We aren’t going to say it. Because someone needs to invent a two word phrase that conveys the kind of mind-bending gratitude we are experiencing right now. Frankly, a couple extra exclamation marks or long strings of adverbs or ALL CAPS before the words, “thank you” just doesn’t seem to cut it. When we got up on the stage and looked out it was as if someone had hired extras to fill in the open spots just to encourage us. But, looking around it was clear that those familiar faces were there to see this adoption become a reality. Guess what? You gave generously. Over $8,000 was brought in last night! That money put us about $500 over the amount we needed to continue with this adoption.

We want you all to know that we saw God move in Cary this weekend [and in many ways before the night even began]. We walked out of the building on Saturday night exhausted, overwhelmed, blessed. Even though it isn’t enough to express how we feel, we are “ok” with saying thank you and will probably say it to you many more times this year.

So here it goes…. ahem…mmhmm…

WE ARE SO VERY VERY VERY THANKFUL!!!!!!!!!!

Hey! Don’t knock it till you invent the new way of saying it.

If you weren’t able to make it out we will post some pictures from the event in a couple days. It seriously felt like we were walking into some fancy couples’ wedding reception. Still in shock.

It looked like everyone else had a good time too. See if you can find your face down there!