Christmas 2009

The McFarland's (plus the Pipkens!)


Showing our love for baby Easton!!!!


The Fulmer's!!

Proud "Grandparents-to-be"
Merry Christmas!!! We had a wonderful Holiday with the people we love the most, our family!!!

DTE- Dossier To Ethiopia!

We were so blessed to find our Immigration Approval in the mailbox on December 23rd!!! Merry Christmas to the Fulmer's!!! After stalking the mailman for 3 weeks we finally have the form that will allow us to complete our paperwork chase. The 23rd was exactly 5 months from when we made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia!!!
What this means:
1. All of our dossier (paperwork) will be reviewed by our agency.
2. The dossier will be taken to the Ethiopian Embassy in DC (the one Ryan and I visited this summer)
3. Certain documents will be translated into Amharic, the Ethiopian Language.
4. The dossier will be on it's way to Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa!!

Then what??? Now we are considered a "Waiting Family" as we wait for our referral. Our family coordinator will notify us when we have been matched with a baby. This could happen anytime but the trend with our agency has been 4-6 months for a baby boy and 9-11 months for a baby girl. When we receive our referral we will be emailed a picture and medical history. Hopefully, the next 4 months fly by as we wait to see our baby's face.

Most families have shared that this is the hardest part of the adoption process. Now that we have completed the dossier there isn't anything left for us to work on...well, actually, I take that back, we are going to start preparing a NURSERY!! =)


Tears of happiness!!!!

Thank you for our love and support! We cannot wait to share our baby's picture with you!!!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Love, Ryan and Ashlie

Merry Christmas

This year we doing an electronic Christmas card on our blog.
It was as hard decision but we decided not to send out Christmas cards this year. After factoring the print and postage fees the obvious choice was for the funds to go toward our dossier expense. ($7,700.00)
We love all of the cards we have received and hope to return to our Christmas tradition next year, with a family of 3!!! =)

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year~
Love, Ryan and Ashlie

Bottlecaps

Our t-shirt sales are going wonderful. Thank you so much to those of you who were able to purchase one and shared our story with others. We are overjoyed when a complete stranger orders a shirt, God is so good!!!

A friend of mine used our design to make a bottlecap necklace. We are very thankful for her and hope you will think they are as cute as we do. Her name is Kami Lake and she can put ANYTHING into a bottle cap. Feel free to contact her at 941*224*8227.
We are selling the necklaces for $10.00. Please email Ryanashlie@aol or use the Paypal link to order one.




We are still waiting for our Immigration Office approval, hopefully we will have it by January. The dossier is ready to go once we get the final piece of paper!! We'll be sure to post as soon as we have accomplished the last step of the "paperwork chasing".
With love,
Ryan and Ashlie

Adoption Fundraiser

*Update: We will be fingerprinted on December 1st at the USCIS building in Tampa. This is the last step for us before our paperwork is finalized and on it's way to Ethiopia!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Our adoption t-shirts are here! We are so excited to share them with friends and family. A huge "thanks" to our buddy Andy for making our one-of-a-kind design and Say What Screen Printing for processing our order. When we first started the adoption process Isaiah 43:5-6 was shared with us from our adoption agency. It says, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you." This verse has brought us peace through the most difficult times of our adoption journey. Another part of the scripture that we love is, "I will bring your children from the East..." When we travel to Ethiopia we will be traveling to the East. We are excited to share that we will name our baby Easton!
We are asking for a $20.00 donation for the t-shirt. You can use the secure Paypal link on the right of our blog. Please make sure you send us an email (Ryanashlie@aol.com) with your t-shirt size and address. You can also mail us a check at: 3433 70th Glen E Palmetto, FL 34221.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your love and support, Ashlie and Ryan


Teachers at Wakeland:

3 Years!!!!

To celebrate our 3rd Anniversary we went to "Queen of Sheba" an Ethiopian restaurant in Tampa. Ryan's sister, Rachel, gave us a gift certificate and we were excited to sample the cuisine. We were happily surprised at how much we enjoyed our dinner. We had a beef and vegetarian sambussa for appetizer, which is a thin flat bread hand-wrapped and stuffed with a combination of lentils, garlic, onions and peppers. For dinner we ordered a meal platter, which was four meat and vegetarian entrees. Ethiopians traditionally eat from one platter, only using their right hand. No utensils are used, you pick up with entrees by using ingera, which is a large sourdough "pancake" made out of fermented teff flour. For dessert the owner of the restaurant brought out fried ingera drizzled with honey and coffee (Ryan's favorite part). We had a wonderful experience and feel prepared to eat in Ethiopia!!!

like coffee??

We are excited to start our first fundraising campaign! Just Love Coffee is a Fair Trade Certified company, that was highly recommended to us by our adoption agency. $5.00 for each pound of coffee will be donated to our adoption expenses. In addition to donating to our cause, a portion of the proceeds go to building schools for children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The owner of the company has two beautiful adopted daughters from Ethiopia.

Here is a blurb from the companies website:
Love kids? Love coffee? We do too. There are an estimated 143,000,000 orphans in the world and this number is expected to grow. Rob Webb, founder of Just Love Coffee Roasters, knows personally how expensive the adoption process is. The thought of having to raise tens of thousands of dollars to adopt a child is staggering to many. It can be the obstacle that stands in the way of a family’s commitment to adopt, and many times slows down the process of bringing an adoptive family’s child(ren) home. Many people don’t know where to start. Just Love Coffee Roasters wants to be that starting point for raising money to help unite families with their children.

Please use this link, to ensure your purchase credits our account:
http://www.justlovecoffee.com/fulmerstory

Our goal is to raise $2,000, one flight to Ethiopia. Which means we need to sell 400 lbs of coffee!!! We would love for you to share our link with your friends, family, and co-workers.
Thanks for your love and support,
Ryan and Ashlie

Tear Jerker!!

I know I already posted this week but this video is worthy.
This is an AWAA (our adoption agency) family, who recently brought home their baby boy Nile from Ethiopia. The video says everything, no explanation needed =)




<3, Ashlie

Fall for the Fulmer's

We had an amazing time with Ryan's parents this weekend in northern Georgia. It was such a blessing to spend time with them. We went horseback riding, played card games and visited the Apple Festival. When we returned home we were delighted to find our finalized Home Study in our mailbox!! This is a huge step toward the adoption process. Now that we have these documents, we will send our I-600A to US Immigration Services. They will reply with the MOST important document the I- 171H. We will take this document with us to Ethiopia and it will officially allow our child to come back as an American Citizen!! (It's exciting to type :)

Below is a picture of our I-600A application~ Ryan thought it was too funny that I made it "pretty". Honestly, we are praying hard that this process doesn't take the estimated 12 weeks. We'll be sure to let you know when this step is completed. If you get a moment, please say a little prayer for our I-600A! Thanks for your love and support through this journey! Love, Ash