2 weeks to go until South Africa. God has wondrously provided, while we are still not at 100% as far as our funding, we know that it will be provided and are now working on getting everything ready for our trip. The preparation stage is exciting, but I know I am anxious to just "get there" and get to work.

We are working now on getting together gifts for all the children at Bethesda. The majority of us will be packing 1 suitcase for ourselves and a 2nd suitcase of gifts for the kids. It's been fun shopping and looking for fun things to fill the bags I have.

We (the South Africa team) will be setting up a blog in the next week or so, this will be (we hope) updated while we are there so that those who would like, can follow our trip.

Update

It's hard to believe summer is almost over. We've been enjoying the "fruits" of our garden and are to the point where there is less where the produce is beginning to dwindle.

Clarke just said to me yesterday that he is not ready for summer to be over. Awana starts at our church next week - so he will be jumping in to that with gusto. I have 2 new piano students, one is starting this evening - definitely signs that fall will soon be here.

Also fast approaching is our much anticipated South Africa trip. We are a little anxious as we only have about 1/4 of our needed funds together at this point with less than 2 months to go until we leave. We are continuing to trust that God will provide. If you haven't yet - and are interested in doing so - drop us an e-mail and we will let you know how you can contribute to this great cause. We are excited to have this chance to be God's hands and feet to these beautiful young children.

On the adoption front - we continue to wait expectantly. We had a small setback about a month ago - when I suddenly found myself unemployed. I am still "not working" but through piano lessons, and other opportunities - God is continuing to provide for us and protecting our income somewhat - while we have taking a bit of a "financial" hit - things are still okay and we are continuing on in the process. In a way - we see this as a blessing because it is helping us to figure out how we might possible be able to handle having me at home more regularly and working less once a child is placed in our home.

Through it all - we are ultimately trusting that God would have has continue on in both the missions trip and the adoption and learn some important lessons in trusting in Him and His provision for our lives.

We thank you for joining us in the journey and thank you also for your prayers. They are felt and appreciated.

It's a quiet night here at the Staus home. Clarke is out at a baseball game with some neighbor "guys" and I am home alone. It was a fun late afternoon, I did laundry and some grocery shopping and then kicked back with the remote and a line up of "chick flicks". I love my husband dearly - but I do enjoy a healthy dose of "me time" and the Lifetime Movie network on occassion.

Just a quick update. . We are also continuing to prepare, both for the trip to South Africa in the fall. At this point we have approximately 1/4 of the funds raised for our trip to South Africa, we know God will provide and are excited to see this happen. If you would like to donate to our trip and have a part in our outreach to the children of this country you may still do so. If you expressed interest and provided an address, your letter will be on the way shortly.

You may also send a donation to us directly. Please make all checks payable to “East Brandywine Baptist Church” and make sure your name and address appear correctly on the slip so that we may provide you with documentation for your 2010 Tax Return. You may send them to our address, if you do not have it, e-mail us and we will get it to you.

Finally, we have gotten so many e-mails of encouragement from many of you concerning the adoption. Thank you so much. This is proving to be a long, emotional journey, already filled with plenty of ups and a few downs and the prayers and encouragement of our friends and family, both near and far, have been felt and appreciated.

With love,
Clarke and Patti

Summer is in full swing and we are enjoying a relaxing 3 day weekend. The longer days mean more time to spend in our yard. Clarke is hard at work making our yard beautiful and I am proud of the work he has done. We both spend time battling the weeds in our garden and it has become quite productive. It is so much fun to walk out to our patch in the evening with my basket and search for "dinner" - some evenings we have fresh beans or zucchini, cucumbers are almost always ready to be picked, we have even tried some of our swiss chard and found it to be pretty good.

The first 6 months of our adoption journey were hectic, filled with paperwork, appointments, home visits, classes, preparation. Now, here we are on the next phase of the journey where the key seems to be patience. We wait, and we wait, and there is often nothing new to report. Occasionally we receive an e-mail from the agency asking if we are interested in having our profile shown with a brief synopsis of the birth mothers unique situations. Often we say yes, but sadly there are situations that seem so far beyond our capabilities, and we say no. The process continues. Having our profile shown does not mean we are the only "match" for this mother. Ultimately it is the choice of the birthmother to choose for herself where she will have he child placed.

On the South Africa front we continue to trust that God will provide the resources needed for our missions trip. At this time we have raised about 1/4. For those that expressed interest in a letter, and yet have not received one - it will be coming out shortly (we had to buy a new cartridge for the printer).

Time for an update on our journey. We have completed the homestudy process and have entered the hardest part of our journey - the waiting. We have no idea how long the wait will be, but we are content to trust that God is preparing us for just the right child. The agency has contacted us about several situations and asked if we would like to have our profile shown to these potential birthmothers, we have felt led to say yes to a few, but we have also, just as strongly felt led to say no to some others.

In the meantime we are preparing as would all other "expectant" parents. The nursery is being decorated and outfitted, books are being read, we have learned CPR.

We are also forging ahead in preparations and support raising for our upcoming trip to South Africa. Many people ask what we will do if the baby arrives prior to the trip - we have no firm answers, most of that will depend on the timing etc. For now - the plan would be, if the child is old enough, to leave him or her in the capable care of grandmom (who is staying home) while mommy, daddy, and grandpa continue with the trip.

This has been a busy week for the Staus Family. We have begun to receive responses from our recent letter that we sent out. We thank each and everyone of you that has sent contributions toward our missions trip in October. We continue to be excited about the opportunity to reach out to the children of South Africa.

Also this week we finished the rough draft of our profile for Bethany and have sent it for them to look over. My mom took care of proof reading it as well so I already have some changes to make before having the final copies printed.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to spend the day in Willow Grove attending an all day adoption preparation class. This had nothing to do with the "nuts and bolts" of parenting but focused on the process of adoption - specifically "Open Adoption" we had the chance to meet other potential adoptive parents (including fellow Houghton grads!) and to listen to presentations from birth mothers, adoptive families and even adoptees.

We had been very nervous about the prospect of an open adoption, but after this class we are excited about this unique opportunity, not only to grow our family, but to minister to someone who is going through a hurt that no one can imagine as they face the decision of choosing life for the child they are carrying. We have no idea how the concept of open adoption will continue to play out in the coming weeks / months / years in our lives but we have felt a deep conviction that even now we must remember to keep the mother of our future child in prayer as she will be facing some very difficult times.

One adoptive mother asked me yesterday what we were doing to prepare for our baby at this early stage (we are about 2 months ahead of them in the process). She had been wondering if she should think about a nursery etc. It made me think. I am feeling like preparing the nursery is, for us, a sign of trust in God. We are working on this (I spent today cleaning out the closet in what will be the nursery) fully expecting that before we know it, that room will be in use. It reminds me of Field of Dreams....sort of "if you build it they will come."

Coming up - Our Home Study should be complete in just over a week or so. After that we will be officially listed and our profiles will be ready to be shown. We will use the time while we wait for the study to be written to finish preparing our profiles.

We are also working on sending out some e-mail / facebook notifications to friends / family concerning the South Africa trip as well as announcing this blog so that others can keep "up to date" as we continue our exciting journey.

Progress

Spring has come to the village of Kimberton. Clarke just came inside from his first "lawn cutting" session of the season. The garden has been laid out. Clarke just told me he need to borrow a saw to cut the wood for the borders. Due to my back issues, he'll have to do most of the manual labor for the early stages of the garden this season, but he did point out that he doesn't think I should have any problem handling the weeding.

Our flower beds are active even this early in the season and Cookie and I are enjoying walks around the property watching the new growth on a regular baisis.

It's been over a week now since the home visit portion of our home study. It went AMAZINGLY well. Now we wait.

We have a few items still left to take care of. We need to put together our profile for potential birth mothers to peruse. This has been a fun project. I bought some scrapbooking software which makes it easy. I always enjoy a chance to be creative.

Coming up this week we need to get the draft of our profile to the agency. We also have a mandatory day long class that we will be attending on Friday.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Spring weather is here and Clarke is excited about being outside and working on the yard. I hurt my back and fractured my tailbone - so I am mostly helping by encouraging his hard work and attempting to heal in time to get my garden planted when it's ready.

On the adoption front things are progressing as planned. Tomorrow night will be our final Home Study meeting. This one at our home. We are excited to have reached this point. We will have about 6 weeks after the meeting to finalize our profile information and get ourselves ready to be "listed" as possible adoptive parents.

Also coming up we plan to get our "spring letters" out in the mail by the end of next week and officially announce our coming missions trip.

Text of our "Christmas Letter" (yes - it's not even sent yet) announcing this blog.

Dear Family and Friends

While seeking to find justification for our procrastination, I rationalize this untimely holiday letter by the fact that this past December none of the events we are now excited to share where more than just vague possibilities. By waiting a few extra months we have the makings for a very exciting update on the lives of the “Staus Family.”

2009 brought few changes, most noteworthy was a job change for Clarke as the recession took a toll on the insurance industry and he was faced with the need to find new employment. Summer and Fall was a challenge for us as we learned to trust in Gods provision and wait expectantly for answered prayer. With that as the only major “hitch” in our lives we continued to stay active in our church community and enjoyed several short weekend excursions throughout the spring and summer.

2010, while still relatively young is turning out to be an exciting year. Clarke is settled into a new job, and we are turning our focus on two very exciting upcoming events.
First, after almost 3 years of marriage, we feel God is calling us to share our lives with a little one who needs us. We have chosen Bethany Christian Services as the organization to help match us with a birthmother in need of a loving home for her baby. We are excited about the adoption process and waiting excitedly for the child God has chosen for us.

The second event is just as exciting and reflects our main purpose for writing this letter. In keeping with our passion for the lives of children and sharing God’s love with them, we are praying about a short –term (2 week) opportunity to travel with a team from our Church (which includes Patti’s 70 year old father) to South Africa to minister to some of the millions of orphans in this land ravaged by the AIDS epidemic.

On October 17th we will travel to the Gauteng Province of South Africa to work alongside several East Brandywine Baptist supported missionaries at Bethesda Outreach. While there we anticipate helping with any number of construction and landscaping projects and help reach out in various ways both at the Outreach center and in the surrounding area. Of course, we will also have plenty of opportunities to show love to God’s precious children as well.

Each team member will be donating their time to participate in the venture, and is seeking to raise financial support from friends and relatives who may feel led to help join in this outreach by donating to supply the travel expenses we will incur. Each participant is being asked to raise about $2,500 to pay for airfare, food, lodging and other expenses associated with our trip.

So, how can you take part in the lives of Clarke and Patti this year? First and foremost we appreciate your prayers and support, as we wait for God’s provision in both the adoption and the upcoming adventure in South Africa. We have set up an online blog for you to follow our progress in both areas and we invite you to check-in with us on a regular basis. We can be found on the “world-wide web” at www.clarkeandpatti.blogspot.com

Second, if you feel the passion as we do to reach out in even a small way to the beautiful , hurting children of South Africa who have lost many loved ones to AIDS we encourage you considering a donation to this effort. You will find a slip and envelope enclosed with this letter that you may use for your tax-deductible donation. Please make all checks payable to “East Brandywine Baptist Church” and make sure your name and address appear correctly on the slip so that we may provide you with documentation for your 2010 Tax Return.

While Christmas and New Years are a distant memory, we do wish you and yours a very healthy, and happy 2010.

First Post

Just starting out.