WE'VE RECEIVED OUR APPROVAL!!!

We received the phone call today, March 23, 2006, at 4:41pm from Sunrise.
We received our approval to adopt a child!

How exciting. Tonight we shall celebrate. We're forcing Lyle's parents to bring us dinner but they don't know why yet. They'll learn as they read this before coming over. [Hi John & Leona!!] Monday afternoon we attend at the office to sign some more papers and hand over some more money. It is such good news for us but bad news for the bank. Ha-ha!

Our homestudy report [final version] was completed by our social worker on Monday March 20. The report was previously emailed on March 17 to Sunrise, CAFAC and ourselves. All parties approved and agreed with what was written throughout the weekend. It is the practice of Sunrise to provide the Provincial Approval letter within a few days of receiving the hard copy of the report. As at this morning, Sunrise had not yet received the report in the mail. But ... by 4:41 pm they had received, and the Director had read and approved us. We can now adopt!!

We also received an email from Sunrise this morning regarding charitable donations. Although Sunrise is a charitable, non-profit organization, they are unable to accept donations to benefit an adoption. As we were originally told it shouldn't be a problem, we were planning on sending all the money received on behalf of orphanages to Sunrise for tax receipts. We are sorry to say that we cannot do that now. However, we will still accept and give all money provided to us to the orphanages when in Ethiopia.

Thank you to those who have made the financial contributions and to those who have also donated clothing and toys to take. We are not just looking for baby clothes as there are many different ages of children there.

Please take note: The garage sale to raise money for Ethiopia is being moved up. It will now be May 13, 2006!

We had our parenting course on Tuesday, learning the difference between encouraging a child and praising a child. Praising people comes so naturally but encouraging takes a conscious effort in the beginning. It's very important to have a healthy balance. Here are easy definitions:

Praise is a type of reward. Children earn it. Praise rewards a child with being valued by the parent.

Encouragement is a gift. No one needs to earn it. It is for everyone. Encouragement can be given for effort or improvement. It can also be given as a way of noticing what is special. It can be given at any time, even when a child is struggling or facing failure.