Hello World!

Hi friends!

I said I'd never get a Wii, an I-Phone, or join Facebook, - now it looks like I'm going to become a blogger. It is a new world! (but I'm holding out on the I-Phone and I still have a landline) I'm mainly starting a blog so those of you who are interested can read what I know about the adoption process here, rather than me bombarding you with emails.

My passions are learning about other cultures, teaching English to the wonderful immigrants I've gotten to meet, snuggling with my kids, learning about diseases related to poverty, advocating for children with HIV, and reaching out to orphans. God has been so good to let me be involved in all these areas - my passions. Wow! But maybe they were His passions to start out with. Pretty cool - that I'm in tune enough to feel like they were just my own desires.

I have three beautiful, wonderful, unique children. And we are so fortunate to be adding nine-year old Lydia #2 to our family as well as baby Samuel (13 months) - finalized name to be determined. Although the name "Samuel" is pretty nice. Names are so important - so I won't belabor that point. (Besides the fact that my husband and I aren't totally "synced" on the names for the baby) It's all up for change anyway.

Todd and I celebrate our 10th year of wonderful marital bliss next month - yeah, the first five years I wouldn't call marital bliss. Ha. Yeah, this is year number 15. Todd is a wonderful patient man who has put up with much from being married to a Pfanstiel. Yes, there is Grace in the world! He also gave me the gift on Mother's Day this year of being able to say "Yes" to two beautiful children from Ethiopia instead of one now, one later. Truly a gift!

I've been teaching 11 years for the YWCA Multicultural Center here in Tulsa - teaching ESL that is - yeah, not the computer language, but the Second Language as in ENGLISH. I've been blessed to meet many interesting, beautiful folks through this experience. I kind of fell into this job when I finished my Master's Degree from OSU in 1994 and love teaching Adult education. It's truly a gift to be teaching students who want to be in class! Also, I've been teaching at night so I could homeschool during the day.

I also work part-time for my dad who is a pediatrician here in town. That's been a blessing to be involved in helping him and working flexible hours, most at home.

In the past we've hosted international students in our home as "homestay" students. That was wonderful - we've become fans of Korean food and real Russian food and have met some "new family members" . We'll probably be taking a break from that now, as we'll soon have five children! Wow, never knew I'd be that mom - although as I think back upon childhood wishes - I always wanted to be a mom. And a teacher. Worked out pretty well.

We have been homeschooling for the past few years, but I'm kind of at the end of myself regarding homeschooling this year. Need to get this house cleaned from top to bottom before our new children come home. I'm scared about this transition to school, so I won't talk about it - I've changed my mind about twice a day, since we considered putting the 3 in our neighborhood school this year. But if all goes as plans, I'll be enrolling them tomorrow.

Yeah, kind of looks like I had four jobs last year - trouble is that was really the case. But God's grace was there. I didn't shout at my kids every day! Might want to add I love being busy. In case you didn't notice.

Well, I know many are interested in the adoption - so I'll try to post what I can about that.

We are waiting for a court date for our Ethiopian beauties - although it might be a little while, since Ethiopia is having major infrastructure issues (ie. electricity outages) and August and September are usually the rainy season where I understand the roads are basically impassable thus court is not in session. So realistically, we won't have a court date until, at earliest, October.

After we pass court, (which typically doesn't occur on the first court date) - we'll travel within two months to get our kids.

I'm pretty "laissez faire" about the adoption process - I can't control any of it; so I just pray as much as I can. We do want to get our kids home as soon as we can though so they can access some more consistent healthcare which they are in need of.

Thanks for reading this far.

You may not see much more from me until the kids are in school in a month.
Faith