red. yellow. black. white. love.

they are here!  the shirts arrived late this afternoon and all four of us immediately put them on.  we love them so very much and hope that they serve as a great way to help us finance our adoption, have people remember to pray for us, and share with people about adoption...and Jesus!

here are some photos of the goods. first, the adult version...

and then the kids version...

aren't they great?!  just FYI they are 60 % polyester and 40 % cotton.  and super, super soft.
thank you SO much to our friends and family that have already donated and become a part of bringing baby home.  if you haven't and would like to...the directions are over there on the right side of the blog.

also...you didn't think she really stayed dressed...did you?

the shirts are coming!!

hello blog readers...and friends of blog readers. people who love adoption...people who would love to support bringing a child into a family that will love it forever. hello one and all.
we, the dockery family, would love for you to help us along on this miraculous adoption journey. and we just made it easy to do so...financially speaking.
it is no secret that adoption is pricey. almost every adopting family that I know of has done, or is doing multiple types of fundraisers to help out with the cost. we are not worried at all about God providing for us throughout this beautiful process. but, it never hurts to ask for a little help from the world. and that is just what we are doing.

pete thought up this sweet (as in cool and like a baby) t-shirt to express the way we feel about adoption. the shirt simply has the continent of africa with the words: red, yellow, black, white, and love across it. the verse ephesians 1:4-5 is printed down at the bottom.
the message says it like this...
"long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ."
he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. he had US in mind before he made the earth! I am ever thankful to be a part of his family. that the perfect blood of Jesus provided the way.

the shirts will be at our house this friday. ready to be mailed out to you kind people. I will post a better picture of the actual shirt when we get them. the shirt is a brown/heathered color and has an athletic fit. the material is that nice, soft t-shirt kind that all the kids are liking these days...not the hard/sturdy old school cotton kind. the design will be that faded/worn look just like the picture above. we'll ship them as soon as we can!

tell your friends...tell your neighbors! thanks!

enat

we are home visiting family in Georigia, which is dreamy. last night pete and I took advantage of having grandparents around and went on a real, actual date.  I think I can count the times on 1 hand that we have left both girls somewhere...it's a little tough for me.  I like to have them with me always.  however, I do realize that it is good for a marriage for the mom and dad to go off alone and blah blah blah.  spare me the marriage health alerts.
anyhoo.  the evening included:  my very FIRST ever trip to ikea.  that's right people.  and it was everything I had ever imagined...right down to the $1 cinnamon roll.  I could have stayed in the children's department for 3 hours and dreamed up fun ideas for organizing and new bunk beds.  wow. I loved it.
then we stopped at lenox mall to visit the only 2 stores I care about: anthropologie and urban outfitters.  I only ever want to smell anthropologie...that is really all I can afford to do in there. 
THEN...another first...we went and tried ethiopian food!
the name of the restaurant that we chose was enat ethiopian restaurant.  "enat" means mother in amharic...which is the official language of ethiopia.
the location of this place was a little questionable.  sort of sandwiched in between adult video stores and run down buildings.  but...it had rave reviews and we decided to go for it.  and boy, am I glad the XXX nudey girl movie signs didn't scare us away.  it was delicious and incredible dining experience. 

the waitress was this beautiful ethiopian woman.  the restaurant smelled like yummy spices and was decorated with ethiopian art and baskets and paintings.  I sort of knew a little bit about the food from my best friend natalie.  she lived in ethiopia for a summer.  I knew that we would eat with our hands...and I'd seen pictures of her doing so.  I was sort of excited about that part.

pete ordered kei wott which is a spicy beef stew, and I ordered doro alicha which is curried chicken.  it is served on injera which is a yeast risen flat bread...that is very spongey.  they give you little rolls of injera and that is what you use to shovel the food into your mouth. 

we seriously enjoyed it to the last ethiopian-y bite. and it made us feel even more excited about our child that is to come.  it made us wonder all the more what he/she will be like.  we talked about taking him/her to eat ethiopian food and how we need to learn so much more about ethiopian culture and history. 
I can't even wait to become an "enat" again.

table for 22

growing up everyone thought our family with 5 kids was big.  I just thought it was normal.  harbin party of 7. now the 7 has turned into 22 and growing.  this week we are all in florida getting sandy, burned, and letting the cousins soak up time together.  their are 10 grandchildren so far.  4 of them are 3 years old.  the last 3 are sweet babies that we pass around...well, charlotte sort of does her own thing now.
so here are some of our first days together.  I just can't help how cute everyone is.

more to come...of course!

papier

I've heard the adoption process called by a few names.  the "paper chase" and a "paper pregnancy' are among them.  today I mailed off a list of 21 items that served as an application to our home study agency.  over the last 2 weeks or so I have carefully checked off each requirement as it was completed.  blood work, pediatrician visits, questionnaires, a floor plan of our home, references...you name it, it's in there. once this is approved we will receive an actual home study visit, complete a heck of a bunch more paper work, and then send it off to ethiopia to be approved.  THEN we will be put on a waiting list for our sweet baby.
with every paper signed, item checked off...we are closer and closer.  and more excited.  and it all becomes more real.

here are the big sisters in their new shirts that we bought from another adopting family.  and you can bet your bottom that we'll be selling a cool adoption fundraiser t-shirt in the future.  so save up your dollars to help bring baby home!

28 is great

yesterday I turned the big 2-8.  and I thought it only made sense to exercise my harbin ice cream eating gene to it's full limits.  I slowly and steadily made my way through a "love-it" sized waffle bowl...filled with coffee icecream that had raspberries and brownies mixed in. mmmmm.
oh, and of course I ate the waffle bowl as well. didn't want to let the family name down.
it was a lovely day with my pretty family. I can't help but wonder what year 28 will bring.

where's charlotte?

and yes, she did this all on her own.  big sister brought the stool into her room so she could reach something on the top bookshelf...so little sister decided she needed to do a little work of her own.  and in the end, a little exploring and climbing.

sam-I-am

here in the dockery home we are big dr. seuss fans.  I mean, come on...who isn't?  eden has loved the beloved classic green eggs and ham for a good long while.  before bed she always picks books for us to read.  sometimes she gets stuck on one or two favorites for a few nights in a row.  green eggs and ham was one of those favorites in recent bedtime book reading.  the other night I read it to her and told her that if she remembered to ask me in the morning I would make her green eggs and ham for breakfast in the morning.  her eyes twinkled and she shouted "you're the BEST mom!!!".  sometimes it takes so little.
so, the next morning...she hadn't forgotten.  at 7 a.m.  I put a drip of green food coloring into 2 scrambled eggs. and voila...green eggs.  the only ham we had was the lunch meat packaged kind...so I didn't turn it green.  eden was thrilled with the green eggs but requested green ham as well for next time.  should have known she'd need complete accuracy in recreating the story.

we also had a few other cute picture worthy happenings last week.  it was cow appreciation day at chick-fil-a, so we dressed up the girls and they got free kids meals.  we had black spots pinned on charlotte, but she ripped them off before we even got in the door.  oh well, they still gave her the nuggets.

also...that night we went to the el paso zoo's members only night.  ooooh aren't we fancy?  we were the first to see the new zebras, meerkats, and giraffes (along with a few hundred other members and their families).  the giraffes were apparently too frightened to come over a bridge into their new habitat so we didn't actually see them at all.  eden was really upset about this and even cried.  we never knew she had such an interest in giraffes.  later that night she told us she had an idea.  the next time we went to the zoo, she would bring her flute (pink plastic recorder) and play it for the giraffes so that they would come out.  because "all animals love instruments".  now, why didn't WE think of that.  of course! 

ode to charlotte

on july 7th our second born daughter turned one.  since her birth she has brought joy, joy, and more joy to our lives.  her sister adores her.  her father beams every time he looks at her.  and me, well, I just cry thinking about a way to express how I feel about her.  she is stunning.  she has captured my heart.

charlotte's favorite things include: balls, books about animals, making animal noises, sissy, dada, puffs, pancakes, being outside, mama's jewelry, being held, and any type of cookie she has ever tried.
almost every picture I take of her...she's smiling.  the only time she gets cross is when she can't drink out of eden's cup...or when something she might choke on is taken away from her. 

the other day eden asked me why charlotte was SO cute.  and I told her, because God made her that way.
I am so thankful God made her.  and that I am blessed to be her mother, help raise her, hold her, kiss her, and teach her all about her maker.
and many more...miss charlotte mae.

waiting for our third

well, we have some big news to share. 
nope. I am not with child.  but...we are expecting.
we have officially been accepted into an international adoption program.  and we're hoping and praying that in 12-18 months we'll be holding our third child.

even just typing that out is beyond words exciting.  thrilling. 

pete and I have always wanted to adopt and it seems that now is the time.  there are more orphans in the world now than at any other point in history.  143,000,000.  a lot of zeros.  way too many.  close to 6 million of those are in Ethiopia.  this is the country that our son or daughter will most likely come from.

we looked into adoption within the u.s., mexico, and other countries...but ethiopia seems to be the best fit for us at this time.  the main factors being the age of children that are available, and the country requirements for adoptive parents.

we are just in the beginning stages of this whole process, and would really appreciate your prayers.  we are learning new adoption terminology, reading books, talking to friends that have adopted, and preparing our little ones-- as much as a 3 1/2 year old and almost 1 year old can be.

so, we're waiting.  and are assured we'll be doing a lot of that over the next months.   waiting for our child that we are certain will be worth every minute of it.  I wonder all the time who we're waiting for.  I pray for them.  for their birth family.  for their country.  I am so grateful to be on this journey.

I love you day

the computer is still being funky...but I sort of figured out a way to make pictures work again.  and in celebration here are my daughters.  charlotte with nothing but a diaper, her usual uniform.  eden with messy, two-day-old braids and pajamas (she'd had on since nap time).  we were outside being a family this evening and I couldn't help but take too many pictures of them. 

I can hardly believe that in 5 short days our sweet charlotte will be one entire year old.  before she was born I wondered what it would be like to love two people as much as I loved eden.  I knew it was quite possible...because my mom for sure loves me as much as my other 4 siblings.  but I couldn't really understand it all happening. 

and now...now I get it.  my heart bursts and overflows and gushes with love for those pretties.  and it didn't take almost a year to get that way...took about however long it was for the soundwaves of charlotte's first cry to reach my ears.

eden told me that today was "I love you day".  she kissed me a million times at the dinner table.  charlotte got jealous and so I held her, too.  an all too perfect ending to eggplant parmesan with feta a la crockpot for suppertime.

this morning my mind is full of things I am thankful for.  so I think I should probably write them down.

1.  my husband is in mexico with a team of english kids building a home for someone.  yep, my bff nat's ministry named canvas came all the way from birmingham, england to juarez, mexico.  God be with them as they learn what being hot is all about.

2.  I made eden a pancake for breakfast with blueberries for eyes, a chocolate chip for the nose, and sliced strawberries for juicy lips.

3. eden is now obsessed with the wizard of oz soundtrack, so we are finally getting a break from the little mermaid one.  she has her own cd player in her room that she blasts music from...not sure where she gets that from :).   you should here her belt "if I were the king of the forrest!".  she also loves elvis because of her buddy, jax.  "see see rider" is her fave.

4. waking up to pick smiling charlotte up from her crib is simply the best.  this morning she kept dropping her blanket and saying "uh-oh!".  we repeated this game for a good long while.

5. coffee.  and honey vanilla creamer.

6.  my church.

7. the fact that today I don't have any plans except playing with my daughters.

8. the way my ecover dish soap smells.

9.  the fact that Jesus really loves me.  even when all I ever do is pick apart how I could be SO much better at everything.

10. our home grown tomatoes!

there's certainly more...but these are the ones coming to mind at this moment.
one thing that I am not thankful for is the fact that iphoto...the way I put pictures on everything from our mac...keeps shutting down every 5 seconds and I can't figure out how to fix it!  blast!  this is why there are no adorable, preshy pics of my girls on this post.

the end.

a dream is a wish

so, I have this friend named natalie.  most times I call her my best friend.  my bff.
I could never tell you how much I love her.  It would seem silly to even try.  I love her with my guts.
we've been together since L.A. looks hair gel and high school.  sometimes when I'd spend the night at her house on sandy creek road I'd wake up to the smell of her strawberry shortcake baking in the oven.
we used to name our babies.  we used to hope at least some of our children would have a different skin color than our own.
we've been through a lot together in our relatively short lives. death. divorce. grief. love. birth. good haircuts and bad.
we used to dream of being missionaries and living far from home...so other people could see Jesus and know him better. or know him at all, really.
but, I don't think either of us understood what living far away from each other would look like.  of course it is worth the sacrifice. but, sometimes it is just sad.  
at this point in our lives I am a missionary that lives on the border of Tejas and Mexico.  She is a missionary that lives in birmingham, england.  It is really miraculous to see God's faithfulness and where he has taken us.  so, whenever we do get to spend time together we soak up each moment. take 1.5 zillion pictures. and kiss each other's babies too many times.
the last week of may the dockerys had the great great honor of visiting the bradens in england.  it was a dream to see natalie, her husband robert, and their baby benjamin at home. it was a dream to attend canvas, their ministry to university students.  the whole trip...incredibly dreamy.
I think my top favorite moments of our england days are : taking benjamin and eden to the park by myself (charlotte was napping), sneaking by the free samples of brie cheese twice at the grocery store with nat, and waking up with benjamin the morning he turned one.

here's to a friendship and a love that bears all things, believes all things, and hopes and endures all things.
and here's to putting our kids in the tub together because we can.