SWI Graduate

Over the past four years I have been taking classes on Thursday nights at Southern Seminary as part of the Seminary Wives Institute.  This semester I completed all of the classes for my advanced certificate.  This is a certificate in Ministry Studies through Boyce College, which is the undergraduate arm of the seminary where Derek is currently working on his PhD in Systematic Theology.  My parents flew out for the graduation ceremony and we enjoyed having them in town for a visit!

My mom flew in the day before my dad, so she could attend the graduate reception at Dr. Mohler's house with me.

Inside the chapel before the start of the processional on graduation day

I'm an official graduate! 8 women received the advanced certificate and 8 women received the basic certificate. They were also about 100 Boyce students who graduated with their undergrad degrees.

I was thankful my parents could join us for the celebration.

A full size view of the Southern Seminary chapel

After graduation we went to Lynn's Paradise Cafe for a celebratory lunch.

You may have seen this restaurant featured on the Food Network or Oprah

 We spent Saturday doing projects around our apartment to get ready for Colton’s arrival…

Painting and...

hanging pictures

Lastly, no trip to Louisville is complete without a trip to Graeter's Ice Cream.

It’s a Boy!

This week we officially accepted a referral for an infant boy!  We are very excited!  July 9, 2010 was when our paperwork was sent to Ethiopia, so we have been waiting for 8 months for this news!  We are naming him Colton James and praying to be able to bring him home this summer.  This past week Ethiopia went into discussion about slowing down the number of adoptions they process by 90%, so we are not sure when we will have our court date.  We are praying earnestly this slowdown does not happen as we are ready to call this precious boy our son and bring him home.

With the sign I made for him

I made this sign for Derek over 2 1/2 years ago with out him knowing.  It has been hiding under our bed and in the back of my closet since August 2008.  This week I finally was able to put it up on the wall to welcome him home from work the day we received our referral call.  (It’s partially pink because when I made the sign we didn’t know if we would be having/given a boy or a girl).

My parents sent us flowers to celebrate. The flowers arrived the day after our referral call!

Signing our referral acceptance paperwork

The cute boy clothes on the table are from my friend Meghan. She gave them to us hours after we shared with her the good news.

On Monday night, we went out to dinner to celebrate with our friends Raymond and Meghan.

With Meghan and their baby Abigail.

We love this little boy already and we cannot wait to meet him!

We’re On Deck!

It seems that on a daily basis we are answering a question like, “Any news on the adoption?”  or “Where are you at in the process now?”  Usually the answer includes, “We are still waiting.  We are # ___ on the unofficial waiting list.  We are hoping to have a referral by Christmas.”  Some could grow tired of being asked so frequently and at times we do, but it is also a blessing to have so many people in our life who care about us and think to ask.

Well, now we can add more purpose to our answer.  This week we received our “On Deck” email!  This was very exciting as it was unexpected.  Being “on deck” means we can expect to receive a referral in the next 1-3 months.  Many people have said a referral would be a great Christmas gift, but we are praying for an early Christmas gift.   Our agency’s yahoo group keeps an unofficial list of those families waiting for a referral.  We are currently tied for #2 for an infant boy and #10 for an infant girl.  We are also tied for #4 for a set of twins.

We are now eagerly awaiting the much anticipated referral call!

My Reading Machine

Below is a picture of all the books Derek has read or will read throughout the course of his first semester as a PhD student.  It totals about 6,500 pages!

He is now halfway through the semester and has completed about 4,900 of those pages!  My husband is a reading machine!  Oh, and he threw in a 25 page research paper, too!

Adoption Update:

Every year in Ethiopia during August and September the courts close for about two months for the rainy season.  The courts just reopened this past week on September 28th, on schedule, and will now resume processing adoptions.   Over the next few weeks, as we observe the pattern for how quickly the courts work, we are hoping to gain a clearer idea of how much longer we will be waiting for our referral.  One more week and we will have been waiting 3 months!  So far, the time is flying by!

Phase One Done!

We have officially completed the first stage of our Ethiopian adoption!  Our part of the “paper pregnancy” is finished!

Last Thursday our approval letter arrived from the US Department of Homeland Security.

Our approval form and congratulations flowers sent by my parents

On Monday, our agency approved the last of our documents.

On Tuesday, I got our paperwork county and state certified in downtown Louisville and at the Kentucky state capitol building in Frankfort, KY.

Kentucky State Capitol Building

State Certification!

Tuesday evening we overnighted our dossier to our agency in McLean, VA.

Wednesday morning our dossier arrived safely at our agency’s office.

Now our paperwork will go through two staff checks, be certified and authenticated at the US Department of State in DC, make a stop at the Ethiopian Embassy, and be mailed to Ethiopia next Friday.

Now the waiting begins!  We have been waiting a long time to get to this waiting stage!

Derek’s Graduation Week

Friday, May 14th Derek graduated with his MDiv from Southern Seminary!

His parents came a week before graduation to spend time with us in Louisville before Derek’s big day.  My parents flew in the night before graduation and all six of us spent the weekend together.  A few highlights of activities we did during the week of Derek’s graduation:

- Spent a Saturday exploring Bardstown, KY with Derek’s parents

- Surprised Derek’s mom with tickets to Wicked for Mother’s Day

- Derek did three days of window cleaning with his Dad

- Lots of meals out!

- Derek and his parents got to come watch me play in one of my volleyball games.  His parents had yet to see me play volleyball.

- Derek’s graduation ceremony and dessert at the President’s house

- An afternoon on Millionaire’s Row at Churchill Downs to watch the horse races

- A tour of Mammoth Caves in Cave City, KY.  The longest underground cave system in the world.

- Organizing a BBQ for 60 people  (including children) from our Bible Fellowship Group at church

You can check out our week in pictures by looking at our web album…

P.S.  Look for another blog update later this week with pictures from our post-graduation trip to Costa Rica!

PhD Here We Come!

The Official Letter

On Friday Derek received his official acceptance letter and phone call from the PhD department at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary!  The Lord is keeping us in Louisville for a few more years!  Derek will be pursuing a PhD in Systematic Theology with a focus on the doctrine of the Bible.  Derek is ready and excited to take on the challenge of a terminal degree.  He will begin August 10th, but first the task is finishing his MDiv degree and graduating this May.

Adoption Update

For the past month my life has been consumed with adoption paperwork!  I have been putting off writing a new blog post because I was hoping to be able to share the announcement of our paperwork being finished.   Well, it isn’t.   We are waiting for one more important document to be processed to complete our home study.

It is our FBI individual record check.  According to our adoption agency the average processing time is 2 1/2 weeks and it has been three weeks.  I had hoped to have it by now, but we are still waiting.  When I called the FBI office this past week they said the processing time is actually 8-10 weeks!  We are going to keep pestering them this week and see if we can speed up the process since it is the only document needed to complete our home study.

Here are a few fun adoption pics for you:

Making an Ethiopian cabbage dish as part of our adoption education requirements

In go the potatoes

We both liked it and even ate up the leftovers

Derek signing one of the many documents we needed to prepare

Hopefully we will have an update soon sharing that our paperwork phase of the adoption is complete!    We would appreciate prayer for a miracle that our FBI record check will be processed ASAP.

Let it Snow!

A view of the pond, creek, and bridge behind our building

The snow has been falling for the past four days in Louisville and the temperature has not risen above 30 degrees (mostly hovering around 20).  BRRR!  Schools were canceled on Friday and we have only been using the Jeep to drive around town.  Usually in Louisville the snow melts quickly, so this has been a special treat.

Derek takes his January term class this next week, which means class every day from 8am-5pm.  Hopefully I will get some calls to substitute teach, too.

So far our new year has been gotten off to a cold, but good start!

It’s Officially Official!

I (Amy) have my Masters of Science degree in Education from Walden University!

my hood, my cap, and my diploma

September 2007: I am accepted and begin my program in Elementary Reading and Literacy

April 2009: I finished my last class

May 2009: I submited my program portfolio

June 2009: I officially graduated because my program portfolio passed

August 2009: My diploma arrived in the mail

A diploma closeup

Here are some pictures in the whole “graduate uniform” taken when were in California in June.  I did not go to my graduation ceremony because it was an online school, so we took pictures to pretend.

With Derek and Megan

With my mom and dad

Whenever Derek is in charge of the camera, we usually end up with some silly selfies