It's Been A While

So.... How was Christmas?  And New Year's Eve?  And Valentine's D...(right, not quite there yet *grin*)

For us?  I'm just going to keep it short and say, "We are so blessed!"  Christmas was a fun, week-long, celebration with family and friends.

Crazy Mustache Antics at the Very Scarry Christmas Party
(extended family on Michelle's mom's side)

Rogers, Burgess & Wallace families (Michelle's parents & sister's family)

Christmas morning: the kids taking turns reading the
Christmas Story out of Luke  1 & 2

Stockings!

We decided on Christmas Eve that instead of Khris going to Atlanta for the Passion 2013 conference alone, that Michelle and the kids would join him and stay at our hosts house while he worked the conference.  We are so thankful for our good friends, The Bolton's.  Matt & Julie, your hospitality is truly a HUGE blessing to us.

While we were there, our friends, Marc & Bonnie, and Russell joined us.  The three of them worked the Passion Conference with Khris.  Michelle and the kids had a bunch of fun while Khris and his crew were serving...

The Bolton's took us to their taekwando class...

We took Gabby Bolton with us to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History

oh. deer.

It's gonna eat meeeeeee!!!!!!!

Lily loves owls {0v0}

my 3 dinos

KK & Gabby

Reese & Lily

Genghis Style???

Mongolian Yert

Mongolian catapult

These girls had way too much fun in the Genghis Kahn exhibit

Fernbank Museum entrance

Then we went to The World of Coke 

The vault where the secret Coca~Cola recipe is kept

Have a Coke and a smile (=

 Well, that about catches us up.  We hope you all enjoy your Valentine's Day.  We'll be hanging out enjoying chocolate fondue... Yum!

Christmas Giveaway! - Winners!

Merry Christmas!!!

Our three winners of the Limited Edition Ethiopia Flag ornaments are:

Out of 17 Comments...

#16  "Cindy"

#11  "Dave And Katie"

#13 "Kaylen N."

Congratulations!  I'll be emailing you to get your mailing info shortly.

Christmas Giveaway!

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas season officially kicked off this last Saturday.  Our church does a ladies Christmas Luncheon every year where we have a wonderful time of fellowship, food, music and of course a timely message.  I usually lead the worship/caroling and this year, for the first time, my oldest daughter joined me singing harmonies.  She did her mama proud!

Photo Credit: Erin W. (thank you Seester!)

This year's theme was Prince of Peace:

For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace

There will be no end,

Upon the throne of David and over His kindgom,

To order it and establish it with judgement and justice

From that time forward, even forever.

The Lord of hosts will perform this.

Isaiah 9:6-7  

Oh, how I LOVE this promise!  Fulfilling scriptural prophecy, the Son arrived some 2,000 years ago, walked this earth without sin, was crucified for my sins and yours, laid in the tomb for three days, was resurrected to life and ascended into heaven with the promise to return for His beloved Bride.

"The Lord of hosts will perform this."  

I trust He will!  I anxiously peacefully await that day when He returns and we are gathered together with Him in the air! (Rapture practice anyone? Throw your hands in the air and jump as high as you can!)

"And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and receive you to Myself;

that where I am, there you may be also."

John 14:3

The Giveaway

The last post I shared my most treasured Christmas memories from childhood - my beloved Santa.  Now that I'm all grown up and walking with Jesus through this life, we're making new memories.  One of my favorite memories from recent years is two Christmases ago when we shared with our kids that we would be adopting.  You can see the video here on this post.

So, for today's giveaway, here's what ya need to do to win (at least one of the 4 of the following must be done to qualify):

1.)  Comment on this post telling me your most treasured Christmas memory.
2.)  Purchase one of the original ornaments from yesterday's post and leave a comment telling me which color/pattern you'd like and email me with your mailing address talesoftherogi at gmail dot com.
3.)  Sponsor a piece of our adoption puzzle at AdoptTogether.org/Talesoftherogi and leave a comment back here on this blog post for your entry to be counted.
4.)  Simply make a donation toward our adoption expenses at AdoptTogether.org/Talesoftherogi and leave a comment back here on this blog post for your entry to be counted.

*Be sure to comment for each thing you do so that all your entries are counted*

**All purchases, sponsorship, donations can be made at AdoptTogether.org/talesoftherogi using 

Paypal or a credit card ~~Thanks!**

Next Friday, December 14th, I will use a random number generator to choose 3 winners.  Winners will win one of 3 of these "Limited Edition" Ethiopia Christmas ornaments.

Christmas Memories, and a Sneak-Peek

Merry Christmas!

I do love this time of year.  One of my fondest memories of Christmastime as a kid, was Santa coming to my house on Christmas Eve.  My sister and I would sit on his lap and tell him our Christmas wishes.

Christmas Eve 1975

I'm not sure what my sister was wishing for here ;-)

He'd then let us reach into his big velvety red bag and pick out our first gift - usually an ornament that we'd hang on the tree right then - and give us each a giant candy cane.

Ole Santa would wish us a peaceful night's sleep and assure us he wouldn't come back until we were indeed asleep.  I happen to have that old Santa suit.  It belonged to my grandpa who passed away when I was in college.

Christmas 1975
Clockwise from left: Me (3), Grandpa Burgess, my cousin Laurie (3), and my sister Erin (18 mos)

I figured out that Santa was my grandpa when I was in second grade.  Late fall that year, my grandpa had a heart attack and ended up having triple bypass heart surgery.  Santa still came that year, but he was different. I KNEW Santa and this guy in my house was NOT him!  As I sat on his lap (very suspicious, mind you), I leaned back and saw the back of his neck.  I saw a hairline under the white hair and put some clues together.  Santa's stand-in was my DAD!  That year Grandpa wasn't well enough to do his Santa shtick, but we had a few more Christmas Eve's with the "real" Santa after he was well.

I sure do love my Santa!

All in the name of Christmas memories, Friday we'll be doing our very first giveaway.  Last year my sister and I made up a bunch of these ornaments for a fundraiser and this week I've already sold 4 just from a quick post on our adoption agency's yahoo group page.

Over on our Active Adoption Fundraisers page you can see all the possible colors and patterns.  I've been busy making these Christmas ornaments to continue fundraising for our adoption and decided to make an extra-special one for this giveaway.  Here's a hint at what it'll kinda look like:

So, be sure to come back Friday to see the ornaments and enter for your chance to win one of three
"limited edition" Ethiopia Christmas ornaments.

See you then!

Puzzling Update

Well, I hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  We sure did... twice!  My sister-in-love cooked up a feast on Thursday for the Rogers side of the family.  There were 3 turkeys - 1 deep fried, 1 smoked and 1 brined and roasted.  All were delish!

Then, we hosted the Burgess side of the family on Saturday with my favorite Martha Stewart Turkey101 recipe.  Slow-roasted and basted with butter and white wine - oh. my. yum.  So rich, juicy and flavorful.  My mom and sister rounded out the side dishes with some traditional favorites.  We had the Ohio State v Michigan football game on while the turkey was roasting.  Good times!

I am so thankful for our family!

On the adoption front, we are approaching the 9 month mark being DTE (that's dossier to Ethiopia).  On the UNofficial list we are holding steady:

Boy 0-18 months: #62

Boy 19-47 months: #27

Child 4+ years: #13 (but #4 for a boy!)

We heard from families who recently traveled and confirmed from parents who have asked their family coordinators directly, that the agency's transition home is FULL of children awaiting completed paperwork so they can be cleared for adoption.  Yippee!!!  There weren't any referrals (that I know of) since the beginning of October up until yesterday - there were 2 children referred to their forever families.  Will you join us in praying for the Ethiopian government to complete more of these clearances so some LONG-waiting families can get their referrals?

As you know, while we wait, we are fundraising so we can accept our referral when it comes and travel soon after.  We've been so blessed by so many of you who have sponsored a piece of our adoption puzzle.

So far, we have gotten 109 pieces sponsored!  WOW! and raised over $1000 toward our referral and travel costs.  Thank you so much!!!

Here's our puzzle progression in pictures... Enjoy!

Follow the puzzle progress on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/events/421473057914371/

If you'd like to sponsor a piece of our puzzle, go to AdoptTogether.org/talesoftherogi

Beyond Orphan Sunday

Yesterday was Orphan Sunday - celebrated in churches all across America - bringing awareness to the Body of Christ - letting them know that we were all once orphans AND adopted as sons by a loving Father. Not to guilt anyone into becoming involved, but to urge them to listen for the Heart of the Father and what His Word says about caring for the orphan among us.

Khris was given the opportunity to share a little bit about Orphan Sunday during announcements, and gave an invitation to the congregation to meet with us after service to hear our testimony and learn more about how we, as the Body of Christ, can become more involved in caring for the orphan in our midst and around the world.

Below are some of the resources we mentioned.  If you have any questions, please ask us, we are an open book.

• God's Word commands that we care for the orphan, the widow, and the poor among us.  There is a compiled list of the scriptures here:  God's Heart For Adoption
• Beyond Orphan Sunday resources: Adoption, Foster Care, Global Initiatives, and more!
• International Voice of the Orphan (IVO): Pray, +Feed, Go!
• Orphan Wares (part of IVO): Shop with purpose
• Christian Alliance for Orphans: Orphan care ministry help and other resources
• Orphan Summit 9:  May 2-3, 2013, Nashville, TN
• Big Brothers Big Sisters:  Start Something for a Child Today - local mentoring program
• Give1Save1: "...do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share," 1 Timothy 6:18
• Compassion International: Child Sponsorship
• Potter's Field Ministries: Child sponsorship, missionary training
• Lifesong for Orphans: Orphan care ministries, Both Hands (orphan and widow care)
• Then of course, if you would like to be a part of our adoption journey, we are currently working on our funding so that we can accept our referral when it comes.  Click Here for details: AdoptTogether.org/talesoftherogi

Big thanks to all who joined us and are interested in learning more.

"learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause."

Isaiah 1:17

End-of-the-Summer Puzzler

Do you remember THIS POST?  We had just sent off our dossier with a big fat check that YOU helped us write. We were fully funded for the second step of the adoption process -- sending in our completed dossier.

So, what's next?  Aside from waiting for our referral (when a child's file is referred to us), we also need to raise $10,000 - 15,000 in order to be able to accept our referral when it comes, as well as purchase our flights and travel package for our first trip to Ethiopia.  This first trip will be to go to court for our adoption proceedings.

With some recent changes to our adoption request, this could be sooner rather than later.  We just confirmed with our agency that we are changing our request from a boy age 0-2, to a boy 0-7.  On the (*unofficial) waiting list here is where we are now:

Infant boy, 0-18 months:  #67

Toddler boy, 19-47 months: #27

Child (either gender) 4 years & older: #12

*disclaimer: this unofficial list is kept by the Ethiopia adoptive parents on our Yahoo group, not by our agency (they don't publish a waiting list).*

Now, in that either-gender-4+years column, there are only 3 people in front of us NOT requesting a girl, which means we are (*unofficially)

#4 for a boy!  

Like I said, this could happen sooner rather than later!

Yikes!

In light of this step in our adoption process...

I have a question...

Do you like giraffes?  

I personally LOVE giraffes.  I'm fascinated by them.  They are my most favorite wild animal - see?

I almost planted a big kiss on this one.  She was too fast (=

Well, it's been some time since we've had an active fundraiser.  We've had this Puzzle Fundraiser waiting in the wings all summer for just the right time.

African Spots by Lori Schory
A 700+ piece shaped jigsaw puzzle

Here's how the fundraiser works:

• You sponsor a piece of the puzzle for $10 each piece (or 2, or 7, or 10 *wink)
• We write your name on the back of the puzzle piece and email you a picture of your sponsored piece(s).
• Once all the pieces are sponsored (there are over 700!) we'll glue and frame the puzzle in two-sided glass frame so we can just turn that baby over and see all of your names and know who helped bring home our Little Rogi #4.

Here's how YOU can become a piece of our adoption puzzle:

• Click the AdoptTogether.org button below 

or at the top of the side bar to the right ---------> 

• This will take you to a secure site where you can donate through **AdoptTogether.org   $10/piece of the puzzle you sponsor.
• Please note how many pieces you would like to sponsor in the comments box.
• Not too keen on online transactions?  You can also write a check, put our names (Khris and Michelle Rogers) in the memo line of your check, and mail it directly to:

AdoptTogether

251 West Central Ave., #278

Springboro, OH 45066

Be sure to leave a comment below so we can put you name on the back of your puzzle piece(s)

• We promise to use all donations soley for the purpose of our adoption.

Let's bring Little Rogi #4 home!
Click the picture to be directed to  our AdoptTogether profile.

**Check out the How It Works page at AdoptTogether.org to see how this organization handles our donations (we receive 100%!)

BIG Thanks & MUCH Love to you all 

~Khris & Michelle

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