On the evening of Friday, October 7th, 4 couples, their children, our house mates and a friend joined us for a special dinner to celebrate moving forward with our adoption journey.  In order to begin a home study we have to collect several important documents including a relative reference letter that my sister and her husband wrote for us and three other non-relative reference letters that have to be notarized.  Once the letters were done and notarized we decided we should celebrate together. So, 13 adults and 12 children crowded into our house for a special night. We shared a little You Tube movie made by YWAM describing their mission to Ethiopia and ate dinner all sitting down to eat at the same time!  We usually do buffet style with so many people but I wanted to really be together and we managed to pull it off. The adults sat together and the kids had a dinner picnic on a blanket on the floor nearby.  Before leaving the table, our friend Abe prayed for our family and over the journey of adoption we are beginning. We sent our friends home with little candles reminding them to pray for us and a printmaking craft I made with the kids.  This is an exciting step forward for our family and a milestone I wanted to mark in our hearts with friends who love us and friends who will love the children we will one day welcome home.