Anybody wanna buy a pie?

So after our last post I had several calls asking for an explanation to what the adventure was. It was fun to see that people still check our blog since we've been so slack in keeping up with it. Thank you Kelly and Faith for checking up on us! Many of you know that over the past few years we have been prayerfully considering an adoption. We had started the process before we knew Finn would be joining us. When we found out he was on the way we put the process on hold. We had applied and been accepted into the Russia program through the America World Adoption agency. We were advised to wait until our new little one was 6 months old before we moved toward the adoption. As soon as 6 months came we contacted AWAA and we needed to re-apply because of the time that had elapsed. AWAA had recently added India to their programs and we decided to inquire and soon found out that the Indian government doesn't adopt out Indian children to families with more than 3 kids! We then re-applied to the Russia program and waited expectantly to hear what the next step would be. Much to our surprise we found out that because of some medical history on my (Leah's) part we wouldn't be eligible to adopt from Russia or any other Eastern European country! We were not expecting to hear that and were pretty bummed but also knew that God was answering our prayer for direction with this closed door. So over the past month or so we have been led in a new direction and are excited to share that we are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia! We have so much that we could write but will have to save most of it for later posts. We just wanted to share a bit of what has been happening lately! We are at the very beginning of the process and there is so much that we don't know so we want to invite others to see how God is working and answering prayers. There are so many "hurdles" from our limited perspective and much that seems impossible from this side. However we have a God who is limitless in power and love and has called His people to walk by faith and we are seeking to do just that!

So, why did I title this post "Anybody wanna buy a pie?". We are hoping to pay our first program fee as soon as we possibly can so that we can start the "paper pregnancy" as some affectionately call the process leading up to finally meeting our child (or children!). We have part of the funds from the amazing garage sale that many of you helped with about a year ago. To make up the difference we are selling pies for Thanksgiving! APPLE PIES! Anybody wanna buy one? We are going to freeze them unbaked so you can thaw and bake them at home at your convenience. If you live locally and would like one or two please e-mail me at leah.dykstra@biola.edu or find Geoff or I at church and let us know. And please spread the word if you know anyone who'd like one. We are asking for a $20 donation per pie.