Ghosts and Pokeballs and...COWS? Oh, My!

Okay, this has nothing to do with our Ethiopia adoptions...but everything to do with the Hamilton family! It's one of our favorite times to be 'crazy' around here...carving pumpkins, making costumes and just having fun. MGH got especially crazy with her pumpkin this year...you'll see her beautiful 'acting' job below where her creation 'attacked' her with a stick! So funny! MSH and I went trick-or-treating with a buddy of his while MGH hit a few neighborhoods with some girlfriends from school. Then we all met back here for hot cocoa. Lots of laughter! Enjoy the pictures...(sorry i can't seem to figure out the best way to do lay outs on this program.) MSH is a pokemon trainer and MGH is, obviously, the Chick-Fil-A cow. Didn't she do a fantastic job on her message board?!! I love seeing their creativity in action! Thank you, Jesus, for a fun and safe halloween!

TB Tests and Fingerprints...

We have officially begun our home study and that includes all kinds of doctor's tests and background checks and fingerprints for me, Mike and Steph (0ur cousin from Oregon who's living with us while in MBA school). Quite the adventure! (I think I'm gonna be okay on the TB test, what do you think?)

Although the progress seems slow and there is much to do, we are thankful to be moving toward Ethiopia! We met with our home study coordinator and really enjoyed her! She is friendly, very thorough and easy to talk to...such a blessing in a process like this. If all goes as planned, we should be able to complete our paperwork and compile our dossier documents by early 2009. From there it could be three to six months until we receive a referral and once we accept the referral...we would go to Ethiopia within 8 weeks! We are trusting God for His perfect timing.

For those of you who have been praying for Madison and Matthew...thank you! God has given both of them a peace about this 'craziness' and we see their hearts opening up and beginning to get excited about welcoming their new brother and sister. Madison will be going with us to Ethiopia and she is very excited about that! Matthew is content to stay behind, but we'll wait and see how the plans unfold. Continue to pray that God will prepare ALL of our hearts for this adventure.

Well, I better get back to the MOUNDS of paperwork awaiting me...thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. We know we couldn't do this without you!

(Praise: We just heard from some new friends that we met just 2 months ago (to talk about adoption) that they have ALREADY welcomed home their first-born adopted son, Jacob! Woo! Hoo! Thank you Jesus!)

Welcome to our 'new crazy'!

"Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you. Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts!" Isaiah 26:8

Welcome to our blog! We have started this blog to communicate with family and friends about the journey God has us on to bring home a brother and sister for Madison and Matthew from Ethiopia. Those of you who know us well understand perfectly the title of our blog, "Something Crazy"...you know how busy our lives are, how demanding Mike's job is and how we already seem to have our plates over-filled. You realize how 'crazy' this idea of adding such a HUGE responsibility of two more children to our family is...and so do we! Yet if you know us at all, you also know that we put our faith NOT in ourselves, but in our AWESOME God who can do anything He decides to do...and it certainly appears to us that He has decided to grow our family by TWO!

I will attempt at some point to put into writing the path that has led us to this point...if only for the purpose of allowing others to see just how BIG our God is! For now, suffice it to say that God has moved in our hearts in profound ways to cause us to LOVE without question the country of Ethiopia and to enter in to the work of the Kingdom there. For us, the first and most natural way for our family to love this country is to provide a home for two of its orphans...two out of 6 million! But two who are precious in God's sight and two who already have a piece of our hearts. We don't know their names or their faces yet...but we KNOW they are there. And in God's perfect timing they will come home to Knoxville and the Hamilton family will officially be SIX! I weep as I write this because I, too, know how CRAZY this feels, yet the LOVE we have in our hearts is UNDENIABLE!

We know that this journey will not always be easy...it has already had some bumps and bruises, yet it is our desire to persevere for His glory...as the verse above says, "(His) name and renown are the desire of our hearts!" We do covet your prayers as we take each step because we KNOW we cannot do any of this in our own strength. Some have actually said to us, "you are such heroes." We certainly know that is NOT true! GOD is the ONLY Hero in this story. We are broken, imperfect, struggling people who happen to be loved and carried along by a Loving, Perfect and All-Sufficient God and Savior, Jesus Christ! It really is that simple.

So, welcome to our journey...it will be crazy...but expect to see God work! Woo!Hoo! I'm including some of my favorite pics of our 'crazy' family below to commemorate the start (or maybe it is the continuation) of 'Something Crazy'! ENJOY!

M3...James Bond-style!

She really DOES love him! :)

She's too cool! Never a dull moment...