Pumpkin donuts with a Maple syrup glaze

Oh... These are delicious! I told you I was ready for Fall. It's not even Fall yet and I've started my pumpkin baking. It was time though, because I've been saving this recipe for over a year (mainly because I didn't have a donut pan!). Lucky me - Bed,Bath & Beyond had clearanced out their Wilton donut pans so I snagged one! 

These are fairly simple to make and Deeeeelicious!

Here's Grayson chowing down! We kept asking him if he liked them and he would say uuummm hmmmm! 

Here's the recipe website if you want to try it! 

http://www.tasteandtellblog.com/baked-pumpkin-doughnuts-with-maple-cinnamon-glaze/

Ethiopian New Year

Today Ethiopia celebrates their New Years Day also known as Enkutatash. Enkutatash means "gift of jewels". This holiday marks the end of the rainy season for Ethiopia and the beginning of Spring. If you were to be in Ethiopia on this day you would see nothing but children and people dancing and singing in every village in the countryside.

According to an article I read online the story goes like this:

            " Almost 3,000 ago, the Queen of Sheba of ancient Ethiopia and Yemen
             were returning from a trip to visit King Solomon of Israel in Jerusalem,
             as mentioned in the Bible in I Kings 10 and II Chronicles 9. She had gifted
             Solomon with 120 talents of gold (4.5 tons) as well as a large amount of
             unique spices and jewels. When the Queen returned to Ethiopia her chiefs
             welcomed her with enku or jewels to replenish her treasury."

For the people of Ethiopia this is both a religious and secular event. The day begins with church services and is followed by the family meal time. On this day the girls gather flowers and sing in there newly made dresses and the boys paint pictures of saints. After this, the children fill the villages giving bouquets of flowers and painted pictures to every household. And when that is done, the children will receive small gifts of money or bread.

This is just a little insight to the culture of Ethiopia. This is more than likely a day we will celebrate with our child from Ethiopia. We hope to allow avenues for him to learn about his culture and where he came from.

Fall Crafting

Fall is my favorite time of year. I look forward to it so much each year that by July I start lighting my fall candles, stocking up on pumpkin, and I began my fall crafts. I even confessed to Josh the other day that I pretended like it was fall outside. It was a little overcast, so I lit the fireplace (with no heat, of course) and lit my favorite fall candle. Sounds silly but it's fun to me! 

Normally, in the past, I have had no desire to make any kind of wreaths. I just assume buy them because they entail a lot of work. BUT I didn't really like any of the ones that I had seen, they were expensive, and I had been inspired by Pinterest (who isn't) to make my own! So I decided to attempt it. 

All in all - it didn't take that long to make, it was fairly inexpensive ($13), it was fun and relaxing, and I think it turned out rather cute! 

Here's the finished product! 

I wanna be like dad!

I took these pictures this morning. They were just too cute not to post. Grayson was so excited to be outside mowing the lawn with daddy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Love Coffee

Just Love Coffee is an amazing organization. They have helped numerous families, including theirs, to bring orphans home from all around the world. How does it work? It’s easy. All you do is click on the Just Love Coffee icon to the right or this link and it will take you to our Just Love Coffee webpage. Then you browse through the many choices of coffee that they offer and pick what you want. When you check out, part of that money will be credited to an adoption fund for us. It’s that simple! You’ll get great coffee and help an orphan in the process!

Thanks again for your generosity and know that by doing this, you are also helping an orphan for whom Christ died!

Love,

The Holders

Paper Pregnancy

Since we have posted last about the adoption, things have been hectic. However they are rolling along fairly smoothly and quickly!
 
Boy, once you tell someone you want to help with the ever increasing orphan population they are on you like white on rice. Here we were a day into the pre-application process for the international adoption and we got accepted immediately. After that, the emails started flying! They told us what we could expect from here on out and that we would be assigned a family coordinator and social service worker in the next two weeks. A few days later - we had both!

The adoption process can't be this easy - can it? NO...because.....then the paper pregnancy begins.
 
They start throwing papers and applications at you left and right. Talk about overwhelming, this is! Fortunately I have a calm, level-headed husband that is walking through this with me. So for the next 4-6 months we will be hunting down all sorts of government records and paperwork on ourselves. Also with that comes, TB tests, fingerprinting through the state and FBI, physicals, adoption training, passport photos, criminal background check, etc. You name it we have to do it. Sounds like fun, right? Well this is just the beginning but we are in high hopes that the Lord will lead us through this. And we are keeping our eyes on the prize!

And that's not it! Since we are so crazy as to try and do foster care while all this is going on we have more papers being thrown at us left and right! And TONS of training. Luckily we have a wonderful GG here that has been willing to help out with Grayson as we attend trainings.
 
Don't worry though- we are not trying to stretch ourselves so thin that we go crazy. We are managing it well and prioritizing as we go.

Our first concern is the international adoption, so we are working on that paperwork first. Especially since the average time to complete the dossier (all the paperwork) is 4-6 months. As far as the domestic foster to adopt goes, we are attending trainings every Thursday night this month along with an infant CPR class and we will begin the paperwork process next month.
 
So that's our adoption process in a nutshell thus far. We hope to keep you guys updated as much as possible as we go through this process. Please keep us in your prayers.


God is good,
The Holder's

Trip to Dallas

At Klyde Warren Park in Dallas

At the Perot Museum of Nature & Science

Eating Fiddle Faddle....