Coffee for the Coffeys

Fact: Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee.
Fact: Ethiopia is the birthplace of the newest Coffey.
Fact: You can buy coffee to help us bring home our Coffey.

Just Love Coffee is a fundraising site for adoptive families. They sell Fair Trade Coffee by the pound, and in sample packs, as well as t-shirts. You can buy 1 pound, or even set up an account to have coffee delivered to your door on a set schedule! The best part is, when you buy from our "store," we get $5 from every bag to help bring home Baby Buna!
You get coffee, we get a Coffey. It's really a win-win, don't you think?

Check out our store here
http://justlovecoffee.com/thecoffeys

We'd love to have you support us in this way!

Papers, Papers, Everywhere.

We went to a coffee shop last weekend, to sort through and figure out what papers we need to sign, what checks needed to be written, what needs notarizing, what we needed copies of, and proof of, and who needed to be contacted, emailed, called, questioned....agh!
Then we invested in an accordion binder.
It's maybe my most prized possession at the moment.
In it we have reading resources, and certified birth certificates, checklists and copies. We have home-study papers, and dossier papers. We have things to be mailed, things to be signed, and grants to look into. This file is as close to our baby as we can get for now, and we are throwing ourselves into it. The binder says: go to the police station, and I go. The binder says: Make an emergency evacuation plan, and Lachlan's on it.
This week we have each visited our doctor's offices to receive our first physicals since high school, with the added pleasure of TB, HIV and Cholesterol labs. We wrote 5 pages each in our "personal surveys". We mailed background checks to the State Police, and the kids and I adventured downtown to get city police checks. WE BOUGHT A MINIVAN. Today, I meet with our social worker for my personal interview, and Lachlan meets with her tomorrow. The kids' have appointments for their physicals in a week.
As much energy and organization as all this takes, I like it. I am participating in a task that will bring home my baby. It's the part after this, when all the forms have been mailed, and my primary task is waiting that I am not looking forward to. I like knowing. I like when things happen BEFORE I think they will.
Ellory was due May 29. Ezra, April 9. Praise God they both came early. I am that psycho pregnant lady who would have physically and emotionally lost it if I would have been pregnant at 12:01 am on May 30 or April 10. I'm not proud of this fact. But I'm aware.
I am the friend you call in your 39th week to verify what tactics to take in inducing labor. I like to, at minimum, believe I have some say or hand in doing something to make my babies arrival eminent.
I.KNOW.I.HAVE.A.PROBLEM.
Adoption should be the ultimate lesson in patience for me. God's good way of reminding me to take a deep breathe and remember that He gave it to me. To remember that He is rightfully and thankfully, in control on Baby Buna, and the perfect timing for him/her to join us in our home.
Pray for patience. Pray for Baby Buna. Pray for Ellory and Ezra. Pray for our personal interviews and homestudy. Pray for the finances of this to all come together. Pray that we would trust in God to provide for all these need and desires.

Meeting One

On Monday night we met our social worker for the first time. I felt like I was going to hear the heartbeat of our babe. It wasn't quite as exciting, and instead of urine samples and that cold belly gel, we were given a stack of papers to fill out, a list of papers to collect, a list of appointments to make, and briefed on all the things we need to rearrange, change, add and/or take away from our home. It was all a bit overwhelming, yet exciting, as we were given tangible "tasks" to complete to come a step closer to our little one, (who by the way we have nicknamed "Baby Buna"--Buna is "coffee" in Amharic).
Next week, Lachlan and I will meet with our social worker alone, for our personal interviews. Before then, we have to fill out personal history surveys, and basically write a college admission essay. We also have to get physical exams and have our doctors verify our health and ability to provide for our baby.
We are scheduled for our home visit to take place June 10th. This will be a financial stretch as all our homestudy money will be due on this date, but we didn't want to put it off considering that our social worker is 8 months pregnant. Her labor would push back our homestudy visit and report until August. Please pray that we would complete everything we need to before her child is born. Pray for us as we work diligently to gather, prepare, write, plan, meet, etc. over the next few weeks, as well.
Stay tuned for some exciting news in the fundraising efforts! We think you will enjoy!

Nana

Last Friday night, our little family was able to celebrate the birth of some close friend's first baby. What a cutie. Israel Comet took his sweet time getting here--he was 10 days over his due date--so we were quite happy to finally meet the little man and celebrate with his momma and poppa at the hospital. When we were almost home, we received a message from Lachlan's Aunt Debbie, that Lachlan's Nana (Nonna) was in the same hospital. She had had a pretty rough go the previous night, but seemed to have made really great progress Friday. Lachlan decided, that although it was already past our babes bedtime, we should turn around and go visit. We hadn't seen Nana since October, when we had all traveled to Texas to celebrate a family wedding.
We had a brief but sweet visit with Nana. Lachlan was able to show off his newly straighten teeth, financially aided by Nana! And we were able to share the exciting news about our new baby!
By Saturday, things turned again, and we were told it would soon be time for Nana to pass. We--and Lachlan's sisters--were all out of town celebrating our nieces' 4th birthday. We were blessed, however to be able to return to the hospital on Sunday, to spend time with family, and say our goodbyes to Nana. She passed, with her children and Lachlan's sister by her side, Sunday evening.
This week has been filled with lots of emotions. New life, birthday celebrations, and death. We attended the first night of visitations yesterday, and will continue this evening, laying Nana to rest on What would have been her 78th birthday, Thursday.
My husband said it well; "Death for the passing believer has certainly lost it's sting, but for those left behind, the sting is still present."
Our hope is that Nana was secure as a child of the living God--that she entered into eternity "sting free". Our prayer is that we remember that this fallen world, full of pain and sorrow and death, is not our home, and that when He returns or calls us home, we will be freed from the sting as well.