Things are moving right along! We have been running around like crazy people for the last week or so, but it’s complete! We are sending our dossier off to our agency on Monday for them to review. Ahhh!! Last time we did this we had days of changes…and I had a nervous breakdown ha! Weird, that was almost exactly a year ago. Hopefully this time we don’t have any changes, but if we do, we’re hoping they’re minor quick ones. Then, it all gets sent to Ethiopia and we wait for a court date! Woo!! That means hopefully there are airline tickets in our near future!!

To help out with the airfare and referral fees we’ve got a couple of fundraisers going on! And of course, our chip in link is always in the side bar of this page. : ) One is our Tukula fundraiser. The pieces below are for sale, and all sales go directly towards helping us bring Elsa home! If you’d like one of these bags just leave me a comment with your email or shoot us an email via our “join our tree” link and I’ll get back to you with payment info and get your shipping address! Or, if you’re friends with me on Facebook you can just comment on the photo there…I’ve got them all up in an album on my page. Once sold I’ll mark “SOLD” next to the description. : ) These clutches, laptop sleeves, and handbags are handmade in Uganda. It’s a very cool cause-driven business that you can learn more about here.

CLUTCHES

If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Clutch – $15, Shipping $3

If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Clutch – $15, Shipping $3

SOLD – If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Clutch – $15, Shipping $3

SOLD – If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Clutch – $15, Shipping $3

SOLD – If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Clutch – $15, Shipping $3

If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Clutch – $15, Shipping $3

LAPTOP SLEEVES

Tukula fundraising to help bring Elsa home! If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Laptop case 20″ – $25, Shipping $5. WE ALSO HAVE THREE OF THESE 20″ ONES.

HANDBAGS

SOLD – If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Velcro messenger bag with zip pouch on the inside, tan. – $25, Shipping $3

SOLD – If you’d like to purchase this piece just comment and let me know! Velcro messenger bag, gray. – $25, Shipping $3

If you’d like to purchase one of these bags just comment and let me know! Yellow sling bag with navy lining. – $20, Shipping $3. WE HAVE 10 OF THESE.

ORDINARY HERO

One of the other fundraisers that we’ve been doing for a while (and thank you to those who have supported us through it!), is Ordinary Hero. I know I’ve mentioned them before, but since they’re always adding new items and changing things up, I’ve decided to include it in this post as well. Here’s how it works, 40% of every item purchased goes directly to our agency and helps us bring Elsa home! You just shop like normal, and then during check out chose ASHLEY RIPPKE as the affiliate name in the affiliate drop down. That’s it. Easy peasy. There are items for yourself or kiddos (clothes, jewelry, etc.) AND there are donatable items. Things like translated bibles, goats, donkeys, shoes and blankets, all sorts of good things that are a huge blessing to people in Elsa’s birth country.

There’s a grant contest starting tomorrow, and the top three affiliates get an extra $500 grant on top of the 40% we get from every sale. The extra $500 would be HUGE right now, so please feel free to pass our link and info along! Here’s the shop: http://www.ordinaryherostore.org/

Side note: If you’re tall or have a tall spouse…say like mine…Ordinary Hero’s zip up hoodie has super long sleeves. Nate wears his practically every day. And if you know him, you know I’m not exaggerating. Partly because it’s so soft. Partly because it’s the only shirt he own with long enough sleeves!

Nate in his OH gear. And Elsa’s super soft shirt.

I love my pink heart tshirt. And below are some pics of the donatable items.

It’s a GIRL!!!!!!!! As in, we have a daughter!!! The precious child we have waited so long to see a picture of is a sweet little girl. We’re excited, so I’m just going to say that again, we have a daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!

God has blessed us with a beautiful, precious, 2 1/2 year old little girl. And we could not be more thankful. It’s been over a week since we found out and it is still the most surreal thing. There is a child half way across the world that just went from orphan to daughter. And a couple sitting here with empty arms soon to be filled. Is God good or what? Is it going to be easy peasy rainbows and unicorns? No way. Absolutely not. Nate and I know that, and we are going to do our best over the next few months to prepare our hearts for the grieving that will likely take place when our daughter comes home. To us she is a precious child we have been waiting years for. We love her. Want to hold her. Kiss her. Be there for her for the rest of her life. To her, we are strangers. Strangers that don’t look like her, sound like her, smell like her, live like her. Strangers. It’s going to take time for her broken heart to heal. Probably a lot of time. And God has graciously chosen us to walk with her through the healing that only He is capable of. What a gift.

So now what happens? What’s her name? Can we see pictures? This was a lot sooner than expected right!? Wait, a toddler!? When does she get to come home!? How can we help? Ok, ok…one question at at time. : )

Basically from here on out here’s how the process should go. The first step is paperwork. Our daughter is at a different orphanage than we were originally working with. What does this mean? It means that we need to redo some of our paperwork. We are also in the middle of a move (remember?) which means that we need to redo a lot of it anyways. Once the paperwork is complete it will be sent to Ethiopia. We’re hoping this happens sometime in June so they can start reviewing it and hopefully (pray hard people) we can get a court date to take our first trip in July. As in, MEET our daughter. Once our case is at the court we’ll need to “pass court.” If this happens in July we could potentially get clearance from the US embassy to bring her home sometime in the fall. If we don’t get a July court date we will get stuck in the Ethiopian court closure (they close for Aug, Sept, and sometimes part of Oct) and won’t get to travel until sometime after they open back up. Pushing our bring home date possibly somewhere around the New Year. Now, of course we are talking adoption and it seems silly to even attempt to make a timeline of ANY sort. But since it’s a question we get on an almost daily basis this is the best I can do to answer it. Knowing full well that it’s all just one giant guess.

Her name. We are not allowed to share her Ethiopian name or pictures of her cute little face until she is legally our daughter. But we are moving her ET name to her middle name and giving her the first name Elsa. It is also a name used in Ethiopia, is derived from Elizabeth (Elsabet) which was my middle name, and means “My God is a vow.” Her full name will be Elsa James “B” with the “B” being her birth name.

Yes this was a lot quicker than we were expecting, and yes she is a toddler. Over the last year and a half, and particularly in the last six months or so, God has been working in our hearts and preparing us to meet our daughter. Proving time and time again that his timing is perfect, He is faithful, and His plans are far greater than ours. He has broken our hearts for the things that break His, opened our eyes to things we were blind to, placed people in our lives for very specific purposes, and educated us about things we were clueless about. Lining everything up just perfectly so that when He called us to our daughter we would know she was ours.

And now the question that makes me more uncomfortable than the rest. Why is help so hard to accept? Pride I guess. As they have been this entire process, prayers are always appreciated. Right now we are specifically praying for these things, if you feel led to join us we would love it:

Elsa’s heart and health: We are praying God prepares her heart, as he prepares ours, for her homecoming. Like we mentioned before, it won’t be easy on her. We are also praying that she stays physically healthy and safe until we are able to go pick her up.

Paperwork and timing: We are praying that the paperwork process and house move go as smoothly as possible, and that everything is cleared to send to Ethiopia by the end of June with the hopes of a July court date and a homecoming of early fall.

Travel: A couple of things surrounding travel. One, I am terrified of flying and an all around bad traveler. The thought of the whole thing (altitude in ET, food, flying, emotions, illness, etc.) has me a little nervous. And two, because this has happened a lot sooner than expected, and because Elsa is old enough to need her own plane ticket, we have some fundraising to do for our airfare.

Besides prayer, financial help can be given in a couple of different ways. In our sidebar there are links for our super easy to use ChipIn site (uses paypal), making a tax deductible donation through Ordinary Hero, and a couple of our online fundraisers (Just Love Coffee and Ordinary Hero shop). We are brainstorming other fundraising ideas (baby sitting night anyone?), and have a garage sale coming up in a couple of weeks. We are also looking into what it looks like to transfer airline miles (anyone know about this?) should someone want to donate them. And of course we are always happy to give you our mailing address if you want it. ; ) As our children’s pastor said the other day when talking to us about asking for help “your fuse is short.” And it is. Our prayer is that we will buying airline tickets very soon. This picture has us majorly motivated! Ok, that’s all of that for now. How about pictures…

Our little girl. We can’t share her sweet little face or birth name until she’s home and legally our daughter. : )

Nate putting Elsa’s care package together, filling out the first set of paperwork, and getting his passport photo. They always make him sit because he’s so tall.

Contracts, paperwork, and her care package!

Some pics from around the house over the past couple of weeks. We’ve been busy getting things notarized, looking at pictures of our sweet girl, celebrating my first mother’s day (yay!), and preparing for our garage sale and then move. Time is counting down!!

Considering it’s taken me months (yes, months) to update this, and that I started this post 15 days ago and never finished, I think I better keep it brief for now and plan on a more in depth update for our next one. : )

Since February we have moved on the list and are now in the 40s for a boy and 60s for a girl! 49 for a boy and 63 for a girl to be exact. I just haven’t gotten around to making the shirt yet! God has been doing HUGE things in our hearts during this journey, and when I find the time (and the words) we’ll keep you posted. But for now, we’re sure glad He is so wise. And unbelievably faithful.

To prove that it’s been a while since our last post the piece of art that I mentioned is finished! And let me tell you…it. is. awesome. We’re working on finishing up her (Maureen White) website, but once it’s up I’ll post about it and y’all can view the rest of her incredible pieces. We can not wait to put it in her/his room and create the rest of the space around it. Oh, and speaking of Baby Rippke’s room. It’s going to be in a new house! Yep, we’re moving. Redoing paperwork, packing boxes, moving. Oh, but we’re doing another garage sale first. Just cramming it all in! And remember that whole thing about us becoming a Safe Family? We did that too.  A sweet older girlie (read “older than we’d put on paper as being open to and God showed us what was up. Again”) who taught us a LOT…about kids, parenting, our relationship with God, our relationship with each other, and maybe all of that’s part of why this hasn’t been updated in forever. Hmm.

So, some pictures. Baby Rippke’s art by Maureen White:

March numbers! 51 for a boy, 64 for a girl.

February numbers: 55 boy, 70 girl. January numbers: 60 boy, 74 girl.

So it’s been almost two months since our last update. Yes, we’ve been busy since the new year. But it’s also been a couple of the more difficult months of the process emotionally. So, honesty alert: some days weren’t so pretty. You know, like the kind of days where a friend lovingly asking “How’s the adoption process going!” sends you into the ugliest cry you’ve maybe ever had…yeah, those days. Oh thank God for our friends who are loving us through all of this ha!

The process has been slowing down over the last several months, and honestly, at first, we dealt with it. We tried to stay positive. And busy. And stayed prayerful that things would turn around and some of the yuckiness that was keeping kiddos from coming home would be resolved. But less than awesome news month after month, and SIX months in the 60s for a boy, can really start to wear on a heart. We’re being taught a little something about patience…

However, coming out of this dip of the adoption roller coaster, it’s never been so clear to us that God’s working overtime on our hearts. In a big way. So we’re excited to see where He leads us as we approach our “homestudy renewal” phase in a couple of months. Woo paperwork!

And, more good news, the lack of movement has finally broken! For now anyways. : ) Referrals are going out, families are going to court, and kiddos are coming home! I haven’t made my February shirt yet (or January’s for that matter), but as of today we are officially 55 for a boy and 68 for a girl. And better yet, unofficially 53 for a boy and 68 for a girl. No more 60s for a boy!!! Seven spots for a boy and six for a girl since January. We’ll take it!

So, now that that’s out of the way…catching up on some fun stuff that’s been going on around here! At the beginning of January Nate and I met with our regional Safe Families For Children social worker. We are SO excited about this organization, and to be able to serve in this way during our wait. We were officially approved as a Safe Family on Valentine’s Day, and have been prepping the nursery/kiddo room for some pre-baby Rippke use over the last couple of months. : ) Starting with a crib. Yep, Nate put together our first crib. It is adorable. Isn’t he cute putting it together? Thank you craigslist for helping us keep things on budget ha! We’ve also managed to get a heck of a deal on our awesome car seat and stroller. Oh, and bottles…thank you to a fellow AGCI mama. Woo!

I’d been waiting for it for months, but January meant it was time for Created for Care. My weekend away with over 400 fellow adoptive mamas…about 60 of us from AGCI’s Ethiopia program. It. Was. Awesome. Two of our Nashville area friends/adoptive mamas and I road tripped it down to the Atlanta area for three days of fellowship, info, and staying up way too late. I finally got to meet, in person, the awesome friends that we’ve made over the last year. What a blessing. There’s something kind of hilarious about making friends on Facebook and then meeting them in person months later. : ) So so thankful for these women. And if they all wanted to move to Nashville I’d be pretty ok with that.

The beginning of February was boy time. We had a couple of Iowa visitors. And well, xbox dancing may have happened…

The end of February was more girl time for me. This time with my fellow student ministry leaders and the 9th grade girls we love so much. Cabin 3! So thankful for the women God has placed in my life over the last year. : )

And lastly, something we are very excited about. I hadn’t planned on sharing until it was closer to finished, but I just can’t help it. Through a web design referral we’ve met a super sweet (and awesome) artist named Maureen White. She lives up in Montana (see all that snow?!), and is working on a custom piece for Baby Rippke! What a gift. I can’t wait to see the finished piece, but she’s been sending us “in process” photos until then. Eeee!

It’s the new year! Happy New Year everyone! Initially we thought that 2012 would easily be the year of Baby Rippke (maybe 2013?)…well, it’s unlikely, but this month we did get some good news in the form of movement up the list! Our caseworker sent us our official numbers before Christmas, but since we were home with our families for a couple of weeks I’m about three weeks late in making December’s shirt. Oops. In any case, these numbers are already out of date, which is wonderful news. And I am happy to announce that we are unofficially out of the 60s for a boy. FINALLY!! Now, hopefully we can stay out of them. I don’t know why these 60s love us so much, but we’d really just like them out of our lives. For good. I’m thinking if the 50s want to breeze by we’d be ok with that too. : ) A 4 in front of that boy number would be really nice. Especially since we started with an 8. 8 to 4! Ok, now I’m just daydreaming…

Christmas is easily my favorite time of the year. That and when winter is finally over and the days are long enough that I don’t have to turn my lights on at 4 in the afternoon! Seriously. But back to Christmas…this year we got to spend time with both of our families, a lot of our extended family, and some childhood friends. Fortunatley the snow stayed away the WHOLE time we were back, so driving around the midwest was more pleasant than usual.

I really can’t wait for the first Christmas that Baby Rippke is home. He/she is already spoiled and loved on. : ) Cheeks will be kissed. Aunts and uncles will be baby wearing and squeezing. And the grandparents and great grandparents…well…it’s going to be awesome. This Christmas our families gave us/Baby Rippke some really special keepsakes including their 2011 Christmas ornament (the gold one is 2010, red is 2011), decor for the nursery, some sweet handmade bedding,the books “God Found Us You” “I Wished For You” and “The Polar Express,” and a frame from my parents that reads “We loved you before we knew you, even when there was just the hope of you-We loved you!” Maybe next year we’ll get to put a picture in it…

Once we got back to TN we got to celebrate Ethiopian Christmas. Yep, we will get to celebrate multiple Christmases. Guess who’s excited…me. In Ethiopia they celebrate Christ’s birth on January 7th. I was feeling a little bad for still having my Christmas tree up a week into the new year, but I’m thinking it’s going to be a family tradition. : ) We celebrated with coffee and popcorn (thanks Alli!), and I spent some time organizing the nursery. Maybe if we don’t get Christmas referral next year we’ll get a Gena referral? There I go daydreaming again…

Well, after a couple loooong months of silence, we’ve gotten news that we have moved on both boy and girl wait list! Possibly multiple spots, but we won’t know for sure for a little bit longer. To say the slow movement has been frustrating wouldn’t be a lie. To say we’ve been easy breezy totally relaxed and fine with it all might be. ; ) But that’s adoption. And adoption is worth it.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in Sunday school class with the 2nd graders I work with. Out of the blue (and totally off topic) one of the little girls comes over, sits on my lap, and says

“Did you know that in some places of the world some kids never get adopted? And then they never have a family.”

“Yes,” I said, “sometimes when they’re only like 14 or 16 years old. It’s really sad huh?”

“Yeah, it just doesn’t make sense. Why can’t they have a family to live with?”

“Well, I don’t know. Sometimes they just don’t get adopted. And then the laws say that they are adults and they can’t be adopted anymore.”

“But they still need a family.”

“Yep. Yep, they do.”

Smart second grader. I am so lucky to have been placed in that classroom with those kids. And then, God did this really cool thing. He made a complete circle that morning. After class, Nate and I go to “big service” as the kids call it. And Since it was global summit week, a representative from each of our churches global partners were there. Instead of a normal sermon/bible lesson we listened to each of them tell a bit about themselves and the programs that we’re helping support. It was really cool. But there was one guy, from Eastern Europe, that had me in tears (not hard to do these days, seriously). He told us about his story and ministry, and then he stopped to tell us that during the course of the week he had found out that our church has over 100 adoptive families in it. He then thanked us for being open and supportive and dedicated to orphan care. Turns out he had grown up in an orphanage. Never to be adopted. Never to have a family. Aging out of the system, living on the streets, and finally ending up in the military. He was the kid that little second grade girl was talking about. Right there. Sitting in front of me. Whoa. I’ve never been more sure in my life that adoption is worth it. Worth. It.

Pretty sure I wasn’t thinking about much of importance when I was a second grader. At least I don’t think so. I remember wondering why my teacher had 3 earrings in one ear but only 1 in the other…important stuff. : ) But I know these kids are out there. I know there’s one in Corpus Christi, TX too. And I have a couple of paper bags filled with non-perishable food items sitting in my car waiting to help fill the belly of someone in need to prove it. I’d like to be more like them. None of this “Oh, but that might mean that I have to do this…” or “Gah, but I’m really busy right now.” You just do it. Because it makes sense. Duh. I know, you’re thinking “Huh? What’s she talking about?” Well, let me tell you about the paper bags in my car. And another second grader I’d like to be more like. We’ll call him D. And he is seriously cute. With big thick glasses and a smile that just melts you. Anyways…

D had a birthday a little while ago. His mom and dad (who are also superb) were trying to come up with an idea for his party. Chuck E Cheese? Bowling? Hmm. And you know what idea D came up with? He wanted to have his friends over and put together individual paper lunch bags full of food for the hungry. The people standing on the street corners of Corpus Christi that he just “didn’t get” why no one was helping. They made 50 bags. He gave Nate and I two of them. One for each car. Pretty awesome. God broke his heart for people. And instead of just shaking it off and going about his normal second grade business (you know, Cars and Clone Wars and such) he decided to do something about it. And he involved the people around him. I just wanted to squeeze the kid. Did I? Maybe. Squeezed the mom and dad too. Nice work guys.

I’d been wanting to share D’s story for a while. But I got busy. See? Hopefully this will be a reminder to myself. There’s time. There are resources. God takes care of that stuff. We’re keeping our eyes open for the ones to give the bags to…D, I’ll let you know how it goes.

And now, a picture of Nate and I around 2nd grade age. I couldn’t help myself. I know I was at the end of my 1st grade year. Nate was 7…so probably 2nd grade. Gotta love my little sister’s face. You’re welcome Em.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone! We were lucky enough to get to host Thanksgiving this year, so the Rippke crew gathered  in Nashville for some good ol’ fashion family time and overeating. Anybody else still full?

Because we had family in town, and have been busy having fun with them, I’d put off making our monthly number shirt until today. I may have also been putting it off because this month was a bummer as far as numbers go. As in, we stayed the same for a girl and moved backwards for the boy number. Backwards. How does this happen you ask (because several of you have)? It can happen for a couple of reasons. Families that are already on a list can decide to join lists they weren’t on – adding one more spot to the list (which is what happened this month on the boys list), or families can lose referrals and come back on the list (ugh, unbearably sad). Unfortunately, I fear this is not the end of our backwards movement. But if the referrals this month outnumber the backward movement then we should be able to start going forward again. The good news is, families are getting court dates and embassy dates, which means kiddos will be coming home to their families (yayy!!), beds will be opening up, and hopefully referrals can start up again. It’s all a cycle. And there has been good news this month, so we need to keep reminding ourselves of that and not get bummed about the lack of movement. It was yucky writing these numbers on the shirt (again), but we knew there would be months like this…just really didn’t want there to be. : )

The other good news…it’s officially the Christmas season. Wooo!! The tree is up, stockings are hung, and in just a couple of weeks we’ll be having family time again. I like it. We even picked out an ornament for Baby Rippke this year. Maybe next year we’ll get to chose a photo ornament. Wouldn’t that be nice!? Yes. Yes it would.

Don’t forget, if you took family photos to use on this year’s Christmas card we have a shop of them up online HERE. Oh, and if you haven’t checked out the “Christmas shopping for a purpose” list I made last week you should. Just see the previous entry…or click HERE.

Boo. I don’t want to write 80 ever again. And we’d really like to get rid of that blue 6 finally!

Our November “baby fun” items. Baby Rippke’s 2011 ornament, and Ordinary Hero tshirt. Also, a HUGE thank you to everyone who has purchased from our Ordinary Hero shop. We weren’t able to get the grant, but with your help we raised an awesome amount towards helping bring Baby Rippke home!

Thanksgiving in Nashville.

It’s getting to be that time…Thanksgiving is just about here and then it’s officially the Christmas season! I’ve been doing my best not to cheat, and give Thanksgiving the attention it deserves. But I have to say, I’m pretty ready for decorations and Christmas music. Of course for many, the beginning of the Christmas season also means the beginning of Christmas shopping! Fun stuff. So this year we’ve put together a list of items we and our fellow AGCI families are selling as adoption fundraisers so you can shop with a purpose and help bring these kiddos home! At the bottom of the post I’ve also listed some of our favorite items from organizations that support Africa and/or orphan care around the world. Happy shopping!

ART & DESIGN
The  Casper Family – Art Prints http://one17.bigcartel.com/
The Rippke Family – Graphic Print and Web/Blog Design http://rippkedesign.com
The  Casper Family – Blog Design http://lcgraphicdesigns.blogspot.com/

CHRISTMAS ITEMS
The Rippke Family – Printed or DIY Photo Christmas Cards http://www.etsy.com/shop/liftedfromthewater
The Bloodsworth Family – Ornaments http://ourjourneytoethiopia.wordpress.com/ email chechica27@yahoo.com
The Casper Family – Christmas CD http://www.laurencasper.com/2011/11/21/its-almost-time-for-christmas-music/

COFFEE
The Biggerstaff Family – http://justlovecoffee.com/biggerstaffs
The Rippke Family – http://justlovecoffee.com/RippkeAdoption 
The Bishop Family – http://justlovecoffee.com/thebishops
The Koss Family - http://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/TheKossFamily
The DeCourdres Family - http://justlovecoffee.com/decoudres
The Casper Family - http://lcgraphicdesigns.blogspot.com/
The Braddy Family - www.thebraddybunch.blogspot.com
The Manuel Family - https://justlovecoffee.com/theManuels/

JEWELRY & ACCESSORIES
The Koss Family – Wristlet Keychains http://www.worthyoftheprizeshop.com/
The Koss Family – Jewelry http://www.capscreations.com/
The McKnight Family – Messenger Bags, Purses, Wallets/Clutches http://mcknight-madness.blogspot.com/2011/10/tukula-fundraiser.html
The Braddy Family – Magazine Necklaces www.thebraddybunch.blogspot.com
The Biggerstaff Family – Tutus http://ourbiggadoption.blogspot.com/2011/11/tutu-much-fun.html
The Baily Family – Jewelry www.munchkinmama.etsy.com (until Nov. 25 so order fast!)
The Keehn Family – Key Fobs http://teamkeehn.blogspot.com/p/key-fobs.html 

MISCELLANEOUS & HOME 

The McKnight Family – Home Goods http://www.etsy.com/shop/McKnightAdoption
The Bloodsworth Family – Homeward Bound Cookbooks http://ourjourneytoethiopia.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/cookbooks-are-still-for-sale/ email chechica27@yahoo.com
The Cookman Family – Placemats http://tabletoptruths.blogspot.com/p/products.html (They get a portion of each order through Dec 15th that writes “Cookman Adoption” in the note to seller box at checkout.)
The Manuel Family – Photo Frames http://themanuelfamily-mandm.blogspot.com/2011/11/frames-for-fundraising-and-t-shirts-and.html email megsmanuel@gmail.com
The McGee Family – Owls and Wreaths http://yestoadoption.blogspot.com/2011/11/want-to-give-me-hoo-hoo-hoooome.html
The Keehn Family – Wall Art http://teamkeehn.blogspot.com/p/decoupage-wall-art.html

ORDINARY HERO STORES
http://www.ordinaryherostore.org/
(families get 40% of any sales with their name chosen as the affiliate during checkout.)
The Manuel Family – Use affiliate name Megan Manuel
The Rippke Family – Use affiliate name Ashley Rippke
The Koss Family – Use affiliate name Becky Koss
The Cookman Family – Use affiliate name Rory Cookman

RAFFLES & GIVEAWAYS
The Casper Family – Basket Giveaways www.laurencasper.com
The Gilbert Family – Raffle Tickets www.gilbertsforhisglory.blogspot.com

TSHIRTS & CLOTHING
The Gilbert Family – Tshirts www.gilbertsforhisglory.blogspot.com
The Braddy Family – Tshirts www.thebraddybunch.blogspot.com
The Biggerstaff Family – Tshirts and scarves http://www.ourbiggadoption.blogspot.com
The Keehn Family – Onsies and Tshirts http://teamkeehn.blogspot.com/p/adoption-craft-shop.html

OTHER THINGS WE LIKE
These are some more sites that sell items benefiting Africa and/or orphan care.

fashionABLE - http://livefashionable.com/

Tukula – http://tukula.org/

Lifesong for Orphans – http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/store.html

147 Million Orphans – http://www.147millionorphans.com/ 

Show Hope - http://store.showhope.org/shop/

Krochet Kids - http://www.krochetkids.org/shop/

Light Gives Heat - http://hope.lightgivesheat.org/shop

Feed The Orphans – http://feedingtheorphans.com/store 

Olive Tree Promise - http://www.olivetreepromise.com/

This past weekend two of our dearest friends ever got married (Karina got married! Woo!!). And lucky duck me, I got to be a bridesmaid in the gorgeous wedding! Nate and I traveled down to our old home in Corpus Christi and spent the week catching up with friends, eating way too much mexican food (seriously, it’s the best down there), and soaking in every second with our “family” that we hadn’t seen in 18 months.

Mmm hmmm. It was a pretty fantastic time. And one heck of a wedding.

Plus, on top of it being so nice to see everyone, this was our first trip back since starting the adoption process. Finally being able to celebrate our excitement with everyone in person was fuuuuuuuuuuuun. We are blessed. And well loved. So is Baby Rippke. : ) I can’t wait until he/she is home and we can make the trip back down.

Since we were there over the weekend we got to spend Sunday at our first church home. I knew we had missed being there, but I kind of didn’t realize how much. Pretty sure I would’ve been ok had the service lasted four hours. Of course it didn’t hurt that the message was one of the best I’ve heard in a while. Been thinking a lot about it…more later…

That afternoon my former boss, and friend, hosted a get-to-gether so we could spend time with everyone. Isn’t the invite cute!?

We had an awesome time catching up with everyone’s lives, hearing about how God is working in the church down there, meeting all the new kiddos that have been born (or are about to be born, yay!) since we left, sharing our adoption story, reminiscing, and eating lots of good food. Still working on getting them all to move up here. Guys, seriously. Do it. It was refreshing. And we were spoiled.  See…

I love that everything we have for Baby Rippke so far has a story behind it. Especially the stuffed animals and toys. A very sweet almost 4 year old, “L”, picked out this dolly from her collection to share with Baby Rippke. I think that is just about the sweetest thing ever. And teddy, who has been renamed “Newt” in honor of the family who gave us him, is unbelievably soft. I could definitely see us taking this one over on our second trip. See, spoiled. : ) We were also gifted some books that I should start reading. I keep telling myself I have plenty of time, and I do, but I know how this stuff works, and before I know it we’ll be on a plane and I won’t have read anything that I intended to. So reading, it needs to start like now.

Oh, and this. This is awesome. Our friend Micah creates and brews his own beers. And is fantastic at it. Loves it. Studies it. Just really does a great job. And as a gift he has given us a bottle of his Barleywine Style Ale. This is one of seven bottles so we’re taking good care of it. It will last a few years which means we now have our celebration toast when we finally get “the call.” How fun is that!?! I just think that’s so cool and meaningful. Thanks again Micah!

OH! AND AN UPDATE!! A few posts ago I had mentioned some families we were praying VERY hard for. They were caught up in an awful mess where their cases were on hold in the courts, with no indication of when/if they would get to bring their little ones home. Well, amazing news this week. Prayers have been answered and within the next week or so there should be word of them passing court. Please continue to keep these, and all of the children/families caught up in this, in your prayers. It is a very real matter of life and death for many of these children.

Alright, so it may not be Thanksgiving yet, but I know some of you have already started Christmas shopping. And I also know some of you have mentioned shopping our Ordinary Hero shop and Just Love Coffee store for gifts this year. Or to give charitable items (sheep, bibles, coats, etc.). So, RIGHT now (until Sunday night) is the perfect time to do it. And here’s why…

Ordinary Hero is having a GRANT CONTEST through Sunday. As always 40% of what we sell goes directly towards our adoption costs! PLUS, right now, they are giving away $500 to the top 3 sellers! $500 would pay for one month of Baby Rippke’s care at Hannah’s Hope, and we want to be one of the TOP 3! On top of shirts and clothes for the whole family, they are selling jewelry, hats, picture frames, coffee mugs, etc…

They are also selling blankets, bibles, raincoats, sheep, and shoes that will go straight to kids in Africa. There are Donation Combos in the store that are $55 and they include a warm fleece blanket, two raincoats, and a pair of aqua shoes for the kids in Africa! You can even buy a sheep that will feed 40 people! Super win win. Kids in Africa have needs met, 40% of the cost goes strait towards our agency expenses, and we get closer to being a grant winning family. 

Again, it goes until November 13th at midnight, and please make sure that you select our name (ASHLEY RIPPKE) from the affiliate box when you order so we get credit! 

Here is the link to the store:
http://www.ordinaryhero.org/Ordinary_Hero/Store/Store.html